Health Care

In your response posts, argue the opposite position of your classmate.

For this discussion:

response posts: 200-250 words each

post 1—-I strongly believe the interoperability of health information is essential to safe, high quality and patient-centered care. According to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), interoperability is the ability of systems, applications, and technologies to provide access, exchange, and use electronic health information without requiring special effort by the user (Population Health, 2016). As a primary care provider and patient, I can identify numerous benefits to the interoperability of health information. From a clinician’s perspective, the advantages include timely access to more complete patient data; improved coordination of care; less redundancy in the ordering of labs and imaging; less time spent on administrative tasks; improved decision-making; and providing more efficient and effective care (Population Health, 2016; Wager et al., 2017). As a patient, the benefits include having access to one’s own complete medical record throughout the continuum of care; control over how personal data is shared; the ability to communicate directly with providers; more convenient and efficient care; improved health care quality and outcomes; and reduced health care costs (Population Health, 2016; Wager et al., 2017).

While I am in support of interoperability throughout the health care system, it must be accomplished in a way that is ethical and protects patients. I believe patients are the owners of their health information and only they should decide who can access it and how it is used. Patients should be the gatekeepers of their information and be able to allow access to whom they choose as part of their care team. Strict policies and standards must be developed regarding interoperability and should be enforced. While information is often seen as an asset to organizations who can use it to increase profits, intentionally blocking the exchange of electronic health information, also known as information blocking, only protects the interests of businesses and can harm patients (Hollis, 2016). Strategies to limit the practice of information blocking might include encouraging collaborative multi-stakeholder efforts, developing a certification process, creating incentives or reimbursement for coordination of care, and creating a governing body to provide oversight (Wager et al., 2017).——-post2——–Is an organization’s patient data proprietary?

The current global healthcare market according to Intelligence (2022) indicates through Verified Market Research, spending will top estimate of $6.2 trillion dollars by the end of 2028, this information presented is from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Proprietary information is directly correlated with the number of patients who may require special care and or pharmaceutical services. Infrastructures, dispensaries, high technology equipment, research laboratories, and other healthcare-related assets, market these needed services.

According to Amherst (2022), information is categorized into tier levels with confidentiality (who can access it), integrity (who can change it), and availability. Interoperability between organizations is primarily through the use of electronic health records (EHR) which can be accessible for the clinician and patient to self-manage. Patients’ rights to access their health information are under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) which is a federal law protecting the patient information from disclosure without consent or knowledge (CMS.gov, 2020).

Should a healthcare organization be required to share its patient data?

According to Navigator (2017), the EHR documents allow clinicians or providers to track the patient’s condition and have availability of the information in one place like cloud storage, in-house storage, or other software programs. Sharing of information is governed under the Federal Register Notice (FRN CMS-9115-N2) effective December 8th, 2021 and allows for the payer to payer data exchange without adverse actions for hospitals with certain EHR capabilities to send admission, discharge, and transfer notifications to other providers (Services, 2021). On July 1, 2021, CMS began to enforce requirements for certain payers to support Patient Access and Provider Directory Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) which streamline data decision making and communications (Services, 2021). The use of interoperability can reduce the need for additional administrative processes in prior authorization, repeated testing, provide efficient care coordination, the use of standardized vocabulary, and other advantages; another protocol is within Health Level 7 (HL7) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) Implementation Guides (IGs) referenced in the CMS regulations (Services, 2021). Health information is the sole property of the patient and the exchange of that information is governed by the HIPPA ACT of 1996.

ANSWER

Response 1

According to the healthcare information and management systems, interoperability is the extent to which systems and devices can exchange data and interpret the data that is shared. Systems can only be said to be interoperable if they can exchange data and that data is understood by the user. In the health care industry interoperability deals with the capability of a computer and software systems to exchange and share data from vital sources including labs, clinics, pharmacies hospitals, and medical practices (Cardoso et al., 2018). However, interoperability has its challenges. Fur healthcare IT vendors, who service large health networks, inconsistent information across the network poses a huge risk to health information and patient care. This adds to time wastage as the IT departments span a lot of time looking for the pieces of data that could be missing in the patient data instead of using the time doing other things that could be useful to the patient.

I disagree that there is timely access to data and that interoperability makes primary care easier. This is untrue as sometimes pieces of data are lost and this can make it harder to deal with patients. There is also the high cost of hiring specialists to manage the interoperability and sometimes patients have to be charged for these increased costs. This makes healthcare access more difficult especially for the patient who does not have a high income.

Response 2

It is factual that the privacy of healthcare information is governed by HIPAA. Interoperability indeed enables the healthcare providers to share the patient’s data and it also enables easy patient care. However, there is always the risk of the patient data going missing or the information getting mixed up. Interoperability also poses a risk to the privacy of the data of the patients as the systems can be hacked which can lead to the data getting exposed (Braunstein, 2019). Sharing data with the right people for patient care is helpful to the patient and enhances quality care, but these systems are also dangerous as information can be easily leaked. Interoperability is designed to boost efficiency but the systems fail and the need to hire more personnel to ensure that the data shared is consistent and no data is lost makes it less efficient. The technology aims to reduce the workload. However, when these systems lose data, hours are spent trying to retrieve the data which betas the purpose of having the system in place.

References

Braunstein, M. L. (2019). Healthcare in the Age of Interoperability: Part 3. IEEE pulse, 10(1), 26-29.

Cardoso, L., Marins, F., Quintas, C., Portela, F., Santos, M., Abelha, A., & Machado, J. (2018). Interoperability in healthcare. In Health Care Delivery and Clinical Science: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (pp. 689-714). IGI Global.