Interface Terminology

674 Words2 Pages

(Bronnert, Masarie, Naeymi-Rad, Rose, & Aldin, 2012)In this article, the authors have shown the important of interface terminology acting as a bridge that links the works of providers and the information that is interpreted and stored in electronic health record (EHR). The authors explain the definition of terminology as a set of descriptions used to represent concepts specific to a particular discipline. Each terminology has its unique purpose and attribute. Today, a single patient’s EHR requires many terminologies using different coding systems, which create the gaps in linking the clinical codes between those systems. Furthermore, providers are forced to use administrative coding sets, such as CPT, HCPCS, ICD-9-CM, which are used to support …show more content…

Interface terminology maps the terms that providers have in minds with the administrative codes. The process helps the providers to focus on their patients while spending less time finding the appropriate codes for their recorded terminologies. The authors also demonstrate the importance for health information management (HIM) professional to acknowledge the significant role of interface terminology in EHR. HIM professionals play a key part in healthcare organizations’ workflow to harvest all benefits of the systems to maximize healthcare organizations’ profits. Interface terminology affects the providers’ documentation experiences and the healthcare organizations’ revenues. The authors state that interface terminology is vital to healthcare as it serves as a foundation in improving providers’ documentation process and quality of patients’ …show more content…

In 2003, the U.S. National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics recommended a set of standardized terminologies to portray the patients’ conditions their medical record. These terminologies sufficiently represent the patients’ medical information and meet the requirement to serve as reference terminologies. For example, Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT) is used to aggregate, exchange and analyze patients’ medical information. Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC) represent laboratory tests. RxNorm and National Drug File Reference Terminologies are used to demonstrate the biological mechanisms of actions and effects of medications. The number and size of clinical terminologies have been expanding over time since there are more and more new diseases’ diagnoses have been found. The requirement for providers to document patients’ information using the federal standardized terminologies and codes is overwhelming the providers all over the country. It takes the time, which is supposed to be spent with patients, so providers can pay more attentions to complete documentation as requested. The developing of interface terminology has helped solve the problem. Interface terminology translates providers’ own language into more structured industrial application languages, which are apply

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