Technology is expanding at a rapid rate, and it is changing the way that we think, organize and operate both at home and in the workplace. In the case of healthcare, new software applications, technology systems and cloud-storage solutions are revolutionizing the way that hospitals manage patient care and store medical records. 

System interoperability, which involves the capacity for multiple devices and systems to exchange and interpret data between them, is making the process of sharing patient data easier than it’s ever been before.  

The following are 3 benefits of system interoperability for healthcare:

1. Increasing patient safety, security and well-being

There’s simply no arguing the fact that aging healthcare systems are increasingly leaving patient information vulnerable. For instance, earlier this year Anthem, the second-largest health insurer in the U.S., was the victim of one of the largest hacks in the history of the healthcare industry. The attack exposed the personal information of nearly 80 million people, including names, birthdays, social security numbers and a host of other data. To put into perspective how powerless the company was against the attack, Anthem’s president and CEO, Joseph Swedish, disclosed that his own personal information was breached.

System interoperability can rapidly improve the healthcare landscape. According to the National Health Information Exchange and Interoperability Landscape report, 80 percent of healthcare providers said that electronic data exchanges increased their efficiency, while 89 percent said that they improved their patient’s quality of care.  Upgrading systems to meet the latest in technology and security is the best way for healthcare systems to improve patient safety and security.

2. Decreasing costs associated with legacy non-integrated healthcare systems

Health care costs have been on the rise for decades, with the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reporting that the average annual increase in health care increased by 9 percent from 1980 through 2008. That number has fallen dramatically since the Affordable Care Act was passed, and industry experts expect health care costs to rise by about 5.8 percent annually over the next decade. While that’s an improvement over the old figure, it still means that Americans are paying close to $9,255 per person in health care costs each year, while countries like Switzerland ($6,080 per person) and Germany ($4,884 per person) are much more affordable.

A major part of the problem is the inefficiency of the non-integrated health care systems that hospitals have been using for years. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) estimates that a shift to interoperability could save taxpayers more than $30 billion a year on wasteful spending.

3. Increasing employee productivity

Without system interoperability, employee productivity can be hindered, patient discharge times can skyrocket, and hard-earned IT dollars can go wasted. In fact, the annual cost of lost productivity and increased patient discharge times for U.S. hospitals is approximately $8.3 billion, according to research from the Phenemon Institute. This can be directly attributed to the use of outdated, non-integrated systems for delivering patient care.

It’s clear that system interoperability is a must for the healthcare sector. Hopefully healthcare organizations are ready and willing to get on board in order to reap these above mentioned benefits.

What used to be mountains of printed materials for health records and patient information is now terabytes of data. The constant challenge for healthcare today is managing, sharing and synthesizing this in a way that provides the best possible care for patients, while sharing their information and protecting their privacy.

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