Structural Interoperability In Health Care

Introduction:
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services continues with their implementation of their Electronic Health Records Incentive Program, which is also known dubbed as Meaningful Use. The Meaningful Use is currently moving towards its final stages, the criteria that is needed to be accomplished entails improving quality, safety, and efficiency, leading to improved health outcomes; giving patient access to self-management tools; providing access to a comprehensive patient data via Health Information Exchange; and finally improving populations overall health (1). Accomplishing the first two stages of the Meaningful Use initiative had been accomplished by out institution. Successful implementation of the first two stages provided our

Interoperability is the capability of a health information system to function together within and across organizational boundaries to effectively deliver healthcare to individuals and communities (2). According to the office of Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society there are three levels of Interoperability. The three levels are: Foundational Interoperability, Structural Interoperability, and Semantic Interoperability (3). Understanding the three-different level will allow us a better understanding on where are organization currently standing. Foundational Interoperability is data exchange from one system by another, Structural Interoperability is the exchange of information between systems and it is interpreted in the data field level, and Semantic Interoperability allows multiple system to exchange information (3). Currently I believe our organization is at the structural level, but our end goal of this project is to ensure we achieve Semantic

This platform allows the integration of their WellTrackONE’s Annual Wellness Visit patient reports with the state of Indiana’s Health Information Exchange (7). Good Samaritan Hospital hired a man named Robert Storch who is the founder of National Medical Reps to find the best system to solve the issue of interoperability. He stated that his goal was to ““First, I set out to find the best companies we could to integrate the AWV, provide interoperability across all EMRs, and include seamless integration into the chronic care management side of the equation” (7). The Zoeticx’s system is designed to be the middleware between the different EHR. In the Good Samaritan system, it allowed interoperability between departments, and other Good Samaritan facilities. This ensured that referrals and laboratory data went to the right place in a timely manner. With the 90 hospitals in the state of Indiana, the Zoeticx’s system will allow the patient information to flow from different EHR system through the HIE of Indiana. With the Zoeticx’s system in place in Good Samaritan, the next goal for them is ensuring that the different private practice that they own will be integrated