Importance Of Interoperability In Healthcare

When it comes to the US healthcare system there is no doubt about it that it faces a wide variety of challenges. It is no secret that the US spends more money per person on healthcare than any other country and still fall behind these countries despite all the spending. Access to healthcare is one of the current challenges that the US healthcare system faces today. Millions of Americans remain uninsured due to high cost of out of pocket payments and high premiums. That means that these people fail to visit doctors when needed, due to the fear of high medical bills. The delay to visit a doctor usually result into the person’s condition to worsen, which leads to higher cost for care. Also not getting proper care can put the public at risk depending
on the kind of sickness the person has.
According to a new research conducted by the American Journal of Public Health, forty five thousand deaths annually are due to lack of health insurance. Barack Obama stated in one of his speeches about the affordable care act that thousands of Americans die because they didn’t have health care coverage and out of pocket cost for coverage drove many into poverty.
According to the Institute of Medical report, medical errors are a leading cause of death in hospitals. Thousands have lost their lives due to preventable medical errors. It was reported that the annual cost of medical errors that have harm patients in 2008 was 17.1 billion dollars. Medical errors include pressure ulcers, falls, burns, and mistaken of patient identities etc. Errors also include failure to employ indicated tests and also equipment failure. Some hospitals fail to provide the proper equipment needed to diagnose patients.
One reason why errors happen, is due to miscommunication between physicians.
Patients often see different doctors in different settings, which can result into confusion and mistakes being made. That is why interoperability is important in healthcare facilities. It allows healthcare system to connect and exchange information. Health care providers would have a clear understanding of the patient medical history and would know immediately the necessary steps needed to treat the patient. The Institute of Medical stated that patients shouldn’t be harm by the healthcare system that is supposed to offer care and support to them. I totally agree. Healthcare facilities is where people seek help and comfort. It shouldn’t be nothing less. There needs to be ways in which care givers can prevent fatal mistakes from
happening.
Another challenge that the healthcare system face is evidence-based medicine.
According to an article written by Stefan Timmermans and Aaron Mauck, evidence- based medicine is describe as “the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients.” Evidence-based medicine involves clinical knowledge and also external clinical evidence to answer questions and to treat patients with better care. Evidence base medicine integrate clinical expertise with research.
Many clinicians however, have trouble keeping up with the latest research and guidelines because there are so many. Cost is also an issue when it comes to evidence-based medicine because funding for research can be costly. Many also feel that there is a lack of evidence and lack of skills when it comes to certain illnesses. Some healthcare professionals are not trained enough and therefore have trouble interpreting the data presented to
them
One of the biggest challenges in the US healthcare system is management challenges. Healthcare organizations face organizational challenges in their facilities. In order to provide quality care to patients, healthcare facilities are in need of managers and leaders that will lead and follow procedures. There needs to be ways in which leaders can accomplish strategic priorities. Managers are required to have certain leadership skills in order to lead an organization. They need to seek individuals with credentials and experience that can help better the organization. Healthcare organizations can use different approaches when it comes to hiring and training to make sure that they build the best teams to improve quality and patient safety. The future is uncertain for sure. Healthcare Organizations need great leaders that can lead us to a better healthcare system.
The current challenges we face such as access to health, the cost, medical errors, evidence-based medicine and organizational changes are truly substantial challenges. These challenges are not going to fix themselves. Healthcare organizations, healthcare providers and even patients have to come together as a nation to work on the issues that we face and see how we can ameliorate our healthcare system.