Patient Identification: There are a lot of problems that are plaguing the US healthcare system. However, according to a survey, interoperability tops the list. The study was conducted with around 300 healthcare IT professionals who also were present during the HIMSS conference this year.
However, other problems were found, which were causing operational issues. Rising costs, reimbursements, and also burnouts caused by EHR systems were some of the highlights.
The survey did not just focus on the issues- it also focused on what were the objectives of the healthcare IT professionals for this year. The study showed that bringing the technology at their premises up to speed was the priority for them, whereas patient care measurement and its improvements were second. However, the biggest problem they faced was inefficient operations within health IT. Document Verification
Cybersecurity and Artificial intelligence came next
In terms of topic, almost half of the respondents agreed that value-based care was most sought-after this year- cybersecurity and artificial intelligence came next. However, there were other issues like it was quite challenging to extract and use meaningful patient data, which was the biggest concern. Other significant concerns were EHR operations, patient data privacy, and managing burnouts of their employees as well as shortages of them. It showed that different organizations had different problems. Which is why there was a lack of agreement in some of the questions.
Even with the IT training their subordinates got, the healthcare professionals responded that they were not up to the task to carry out IT operations effectively and efficiently within their premises with the tools at their disposal.
Patient Record
However, with more and more healthcare providers joining the fray, the industry is pushing towards better interoperability. With it, different organizations can share the same patient data among themselves for seamless operations and better patient care. This will not only help healthcare providers by speeding up processes faster. But it will also help patients as it will increase patient safety.
Interoperability is, as evident from the study above, a big deal for the healthcare system. However, due to several reasons, healthcare data is not interoperable. For instance, different EHR systems have different input methods and fields, and they provide these options to the hospitals. These hospitals can also choose in which fields they want to save the data. For example, a hospital may choose to save the names of the patients in two fields for first and last names. Whereas another health system may decide to save the names in three fields, including middle names. Thus, the data cannot be shared, as there is no standardized system. Also, multiple medical records, or duplicates, create if the same patient goes to these two different health systems for various treatments.
Lack of interoperability creates another problem
Lack of interoperability creates another problem entirely- patient safety issues, which arise from patient misidentification. While searching for a patient, not only duplicate medical records create, but overlays add into the mix. These quite dangerous- it occurs when two different patient identification records merge. A lot of healthcare providers, as well as patients, are suffering due to these issues which jeopardize patient safety.
However, while many are suffering, some health systems are accurately identifying their patients and enhancing patient safety. Reputed health systems like Terrebonne General Medical Center and Northwell Health are using RightPatient- a biometric patient identification platform. It locks the medical records of the patients with their biometric data so that it is inaccessible for unauthorized parties. This prevents medical identity theft, insurance fraud, as well as patient mix-ups. Once a patient registers with RightPatient from the hospital. All they need to do is get their irises or fingerprints scanned- the platform identifies their accurate records within seconds and displays it for the next step. It enhances patient safety, improves revenue cycle as well as saves millions by reducing denied claims for hospitals.
