>> How Can Interoperability Progress In-Home Health Care?
Many people believe that interoperability is limited to healthcare providers and businesses such as hospitals, labs, clinics, and medical centers. Although the scope for its application extends to places such as elderly communities, it's high time that interoperability is used to aid the progression of in-home healthcare.
What Is In-Home Health Care?
Home health is a branch of healthcare that focuses on providing quality healthcare and medical solutions at home to patients who are old, chronically ill, or suffering from an incurable disease. It often requires medical equipment to be installed in the patient's room at home, and they may have full-time nurses or caregivers.
When it comes to interoperability, this area is often neglected and does not prosper as much as it has the potential to.
Benefits of Interoperability
There are many benefits that interoperability brings to the home health sector. Some of which are as follows:
1. Don’t Need To Double-Check Data Manually
Interoperability helps digitalize and standardize data input. When caregivers access the patient’s medical history, they always have the latest and most updated versions. This is especially important for home health providers that often refer patients to other healthcare experts. Manageable, updated, and standardized medical health data makes providing care efficient and less prone to errors.
2. Strengthens Coordination Between Healthcare Providers
One of the most significant issues home health providers, and patients faces are establishing communication amongst the providers, patients, and payers. Interoperability helps open channels for effective communication and data exchange. This is vital if the patient is suffering from multiple ailments. It also opens ways for improvement in telehealth from home and virtual consultations.
3. Helps Upload Data From Home To Update EHRs
Data recorded at home is essential to home health care. Nurses and care providers need to use this data and update the patient’s medical history. Interoperability helps create electronic health records that are easy to update and allow providers caring for the patient to build a reliable and updated medical history file.
EHRs ensure medical data is less prone to error and is not scattered in paperwork.
4. Reduces Costs and Increases Efficiency
Better communication, updated medical health records, and fewer errors help reduce healthcare costs. It saves manpower and many resources, making healthcare more affordable for patients and less taxing on providers and insurers. Statistics show that over 15 million people in the U.S. are patients requiring home healthcare. As of 2016, there were only 12,200 registered home healthcare organizations. Therefore efficiency and low costs can help boost this sector.
Challenges To Incorporating Interoperability In-Home Health Care
Although interoperability is much needed in the home health sector, there are specific challenges to incorporating it effectively. It would require the caregivers to access EHRs and various integration engines.
This means they would need a device or portable computer while provide the patient with care at home. Many people who offer nursing and care services or even medical services are not very tech-savvy and may need proper training to help them.
The Main Takeaway
Overall, with proper steps and a well-thought-out plan for integration, many home healthcare organizations can adapt interoperability measures to ensure they provide affordable and efficient healthcare. The sooner they understand the future of the healthcare sector is in digitalization, the easier it will be for them to prosper.
DevScripts Solutions is an IT Consultant Firm Specializing in Interoperability within the Healthcare Arena.
We are a small team solving big interoperability challenges on a daily basis. With our vast knowledge of interoperability we can integrate ourselves as part of your organization just like we are part of your full-time team. We develop a variety of custom interfaces for healthcare organizations such as Healthcare Vendors, HIEs, Health Systems, Hospitals, Medical Practices, Payors and ACOs using Mirth Connect.
We work with businesses in California, Georgia, New York, Florida, Texas and throughout the wider United States.
For more information on our services or to arrange a consultation call please contact us today.
T: 678-861-4682 E: info@devscriptssolutions.com
