Interoperability is the future of EHRs and EMRs.  Systems must work well together, but how can we make this more beneficial? Are there any challenges ahead?

Read on more to learn about the importance, challenges, benefits, and how to improve healthcare interoperability in this article.

What is Healthcare Interoperability?

It refers to the software applications and information systems that allow communication and data exchange. In addition, it provides insight into how the overall processes work.

There are four categories of healthcare interoperability:

● Foundational Interoperability

This focuses on transferring data between information systems. Only when the user attempts to access the information can the information be interpreted.

● Structural Interoperability

This level defines the syntax for data exchange. It allows receiving information systems to understand the data in the field.

● Semantic Interoperability

In healthcare systems, semantic interoperability is one of the most significant levels. It allows for systems to communicate and interpret information. As a result, this level is in high demand as authorized users can access the patient’s data electronically.

● Organizational Interoperability

This type of interoperability adds multiple non-technical components to the system. These include social, organizational, and exchange policies. Also, these features allow interoperability to unify with workflows within the organization. Through other technical levels, data exchange between different healthcare organizations is seamless.

Importance of Interoperability in healthcare

As important as it is to speak the same language as the person you are dealing with, it is equally important that EHR/EMR systems can communicate with each other using standardized terminology that can be understood easily.

With this, patient data remains accurate, reduces patient search time, and even improves patient outcomes.

Let’s look at the three challenges in EHR interoperability.

1. Data Quality and Systematization

The 2020 HIMSS Media and Hyland Healthcare Survey states that the management of unstructured data is one of the barriers to improving interoperability. This makes sense since your system gathers so much data from various sources.

You can solve this by using standardized terminology quickly sorted and analyzed by AI-powered tools. Today’s most common EHR interoperability standard is FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources). It also offers both structural and semantic interoperability. Optimizing EHR data can be done either by yourself or a third party.

2. A Refusal to Share Data

While there is an industry initiative to facilitate patients’ access to electronic health information, some healthcare companies refuse to share EHR data. Furthermore, some facilities fear interoperability will harm their business. Closed EHRs (inaccessible to other providers) help lock down patients’ data.

3. Lack of Skill

The process of implementing EMR interoperability is very complex. For healthcare software development, experience is crucial. To make your EHR/EMR systems seamless and secure, you need a reliable team with relevant expertise.

Benefits of Interoperability

With various medical tools in the healthcare industry, interoperability also plays a huge role. It offers the potential to solve some of the industry’s most significant challenges and reduce care costs. Here are a few of its benefits:

Greater Productivity

Providers’ day-to-day productivity is critical to their success. For them, patients matter more than technology. If interoperability is lacking, productivity will suffer. Because of this, users need to have access to information from disparate systems in a streamlined manner. They shouldn’t have to spend unnecessary time waiting for the systems to communicate.

Fewer Errors

Good care must focus on patient safety. Moreover, data access at the point of care is crucial to preventing medical errors. Thus, interoperability solutions reduce these risks and improve the quality of care.

Safeguarding Patient Data

Hospitals balance the need to access patient health data with privacy concerns as the number of attacks on them grows. The best interoperability providers are even HITRUST-certified, ensuring secure and appropriate data sharing. 

Other benefits of interoperability include— better collaborations, financial stability, and improved healthcare quality.

Steps on How to Improve Interoperability

Data Center Infrastructure Management

Your IT staff can view the current state of your data center with DCIM or Data Center Infrastructure Management. Their insights help you improve the efficiency of your system while laying the groundwork for growth. In DCIM systems, space, power, and cooling are all considered.

DCIM systems help data center managers by

• Implementing technical and business goals and changes
• Cutting waste and overprovisioning
• Planning for new data center capacity
• Reducing downtime risks
• Boosting energy efficiency

Getting Ready for Audits

Under the new interoperability rules, plans (and providers) can increase and comply with the standards. Sooner rather than later, however, plans can expect to be audited on their compliance with the rules. Identify what information you will capture to support any technical and operational queries as you prepare to deal with complaints and audits. 

Managing Risks

If multiple organizations share a patient’s files, an attack (such as a hack or data breach) can strike all parties involved.

It is critical to prepare for hacks and other data breaches. However, with interoperable systems, organizations need to be more cautious due to the increased risk. 

Thus, you need a plan to defend your organization against hacking attempts, phishing, and malware attacks. A risk management plan requires the right tools to be secure against potential threats. Documentation of disaster recovery procedures is crucial.

The following steps will also lead to greater interoperability for your organization:

• Integrate all EHRs into one integrated platform.
• Put excess data and workloads in the cloud.
• Diagnose the patient using a health information exchange (HIE) system.
• Provide your hospital or clinic with robust and efficient digital healthcare software
• Invest in an EHR with expanded patient records that is content-enabled.
• Incorporate neuro-linguistic programming and voice recognition into your system.

Providing you with the Best

Looking for an EHR/EMR platform that meets industry standards and complies with local regulations? 1st Providers Choice is a leading provider of innovative health tech solutions.

We also understand the need and expectations of our clients for a higher level of performance for billing software and EMR software. That’s why we only offer the top tailored medical billing system and EHR with features that will allow your practice to operate at its optimum potential, save time, and double your revenue.

You can call us at (480) 782-1116 for immediate assistance, or you can schedule a free demo with our experts TODAY.

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The American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) is holding their 30th annual Pain Medicine conference this March, titled the Emerging Science & Research of Pain Medicine – and 1st Providers Choice is proud to announce that our Pain Management EHR team will be in attendance.

The conference will be held at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona from March 6 to 9, with preconference sessions beginning on March 5. Physicians attending the APM Annual Meeting’s various sessions will have the possibility to earn up to 32.25 Continuing Medical Education credits.

Sessions will cover topics including the improvement of pain treatment protocols, pain medicine education initiatives, and more. The following are a few of the stand-out sessions:

• Improving Pain Treatment Protocols: AAPM and the FDA Analgesic, Anesthetic, and Addiction Clinical Trial Translations, Innovations, Opportunities, and Networks (ACTTION) Initiative
• Updates in Chronic Pain Management in the Adolescent Population
• Square Pegs in Round Holes? Do Clinical Treatment Guidelines Fit Our Patients’ Treatment Needs?
• Advancing the Practice of Battlefield (Auricular) Acupuncture

Held as a way to promote continuing education in pain medicine and professional networking, the AAPM Annual Meeting will also feature an exhibit space for more than 100 pain treatment products and services, including pain management EHR software from 1st Providers Choice. It will be a great opportunity for pain management and pain medicine specialists to learn more about electronic health record software and how implementing it can reduce operating costs and improve care.

To request a FREE demo of our EHR for pain medicine or fully integrated ICD-10 ready practice management software call 480-782-1116. You can also stop by Booth #100 at the AAPM Annual Meeting to talk with one of our EHR specialists. For more information about the conference and session descriptions, click here.

About the AAPM: The American Academy of Pain Medicine is the premiere association for pain physicians and their treatment teams. The 2104 conference is a celebration of the organization’s 30 years of pain medicine and the better and safer management of pain.

The selection process to find the ideal EHR software takes time, but choosing the right system can result in improved patient care, increased efficiency and reduced costs. This is why it is important to define your practice’s needs before starting your search, to research vendors thoroughly, and to understand how an EHR might benefit you in the long run. Though there are many questions you should ask yourself before you start examining your options, these four fundamentals are a good place to get started:

1. Think about what makes your practice unique.

To choose the right EHR for your practice, you first need to determine what makes it different from the average healthcare organization. Is your specialty uncommon? Does your workflow differ greatly from other clinics? Do you use an old billing system that might not be easy to integrate with a new EHR? If you take the time to think about your practice and how it operates, it will be easier for you to come up with questions to ask potential EHR partners. The more thorough your questions and research, the more likely you will be to end up with the right EHR.

2. Get to know the EHR vendor.

Researching an EHR system to ensure that it meets all of your practice’s needs is important, but you also want to make sure that you do your homework and get to know the EHR vendor. Once your electronic medical record system is installed, is the vendor going to be there to help you customize the software? Will their training and support team help make sure you make it to your “go live” date and that your staff is adequately prepared? The relationship with your vendor is ongoing, so make sure that they are people you want to work with.

3. Consider the importance of mobile-ready EHR software.

More and more doctors want to use their smartphones to connect to their EHR, yet few electronic medical record systems provide this useful capability. Whether your have the need for this feature now or think you might in the future, make sure the EHR vendor you partner with provides software that is mobile compatible. Being able to access patient records on-the-can help you respond to patient requests, view scheduled appointments, and monitor important test results for critical patients even when you are out of the office.

4. Choose an EHR that will grow with your organization.

Mobile capabilities aside, there are many other EHR features that few systems have but that are likely to be the norm in coming years. Patient portal software, for example, is gaining importance as providers prepare for Meaningful Use Stage 2. Even if you are not participating in Meaningful Use and have no plans to in the future, you will eventually want a patient portal to meet patient demands. If you don’t want to use that feature quite yet, you can always ask your EHR vendor if you have the option to add it in the future. EHRs that can be customized, that easily adapt to changes in workflow, and that can interface with other software tend to be systems that make physicians happier long-term.

Call 480-782-1116 or contact us online to learn more about our certified, mobile-ready EHR software.

Times are changing in the medical field, and it’s not hard to see why. Modern technology has brought about a myriad of benefits, facilitating higher efficiency, accuracy and convenience for both doctors and patients alike. Through the use of mental health EHR software, for example, psychiatrists are now providing patients with easy access to their health records and tests, online scheduling, and more. New technologies are also helping reduce costs for providers and patients and, more importantly, they are helping to improve care delivery and treatment outcomes.

By using EHR-integrated patient portal software, mental health professionals are able to provide their patients a safe place to answer sensitive questions. Being able to answer personal questions in a non-threatening environment (and knowing that their information is kept confidential and secure) allows patients to really open up. Additionally, filling this information out online before a scheduled appointment reduces waiting time for the patient, while simultaneously giving medical staff extra time to address the patient’s questions and concerns about specific things they may have trouble understanding. It also gives providers the data they need to make accurate diagnoses.

Patient portal solutions, when used together with EHR software for psychiatry or mental health, also allow patients take advantage of convenient features such as online scheduling and bill pay, e-consultations, and easy medication refill requests. In addition to this, psychiatry EHRs can be customized to meet the unique needs of mental health patients by allowing them to list out their health issues before their appointment, on their own time, eliminating unnecessary stress.

Not only do online healthcare portals increase efficiency and patient customization, they also reduce costs for the provider. Some aspects of online portals that cut IT and administrative costs at the benefit of the patient include the ability to:

• Add patient demographics before initial appointment and update them anytime.
• Add and update billing and insurance information.
• Input current medications.
• Enter past medical history and family history.
• Fill out part of the subjective note for the provider.
• Send secure messages to the provider.
• View documents, immunizations, and labs.
• Update and monitor vital signs.
• View care plans.
• Complete intake forms.
• View statements and pay bills online.
• Request appointments without making a phone call.
• Request prescription refills online.
• Access patient education resources.
• Check for authorizations and referrals.

Keeping customer service as the primary focus in medical care, we provide an optimal solution to lowering costs while increasing comfort and convenience. Our psychiatric EHR software is fully certified and HIPAA compliant, ensuring patient information is kept confidential, strictly between the patient and provider.

Call 480-782-1116 to learn more about our leading health IT solutions.

Our Electronic Health Record software is one of the most trusted, well-designed specialty healthcare products in the market today. Not only is it a secure, full-featured electronic medical records system, but it is also fully integrated with a multitude of useful medical management office modules that improve the workflow of your practice. See how our Electronic Health Record software can help your practice improve care quality for patients, reduce risk, cut costs, and increase revenue.

Click here to watch a video about our fully certified EHR software. Call 480-782 -1116 or contact us online to learn more.

Endocrinology and diabetology EHR software increases the efficiency of documenting patient medical records for physicians. In fact, using EHR software improves clinical documentation, ensures health records are safe and secure, and results in a faster and more effective retrieval process. Full-featured EHRs, like 1st Providers Choice’s IMS solution, can also make patients’ lives easier and result in better medical care overall by integrating with glucose devices and other self-monitoring tools.

Using recent advances in technology built into our IMS for Diabetology and Endocrinology EHR software, physicians can automatically download glucose meter results from patients’ portal glucose devices. All you have to do is connect the patient’s device to a laptop or PC running the EHR. You can then import results from the device into the EHR directly into the health record of the patient you select. Not only will your endocrinology practice save by having patient data automatically documented and analyzed, but patients will no longer have to manually keep track of this data.

At 1st Providers Choice, we have years of experience working with endocrinologists and diabetology practices. This has given us the experience necessary to implement highly successful EHR solutions. Our technology is tailored to the endocrinology specialty throughout the application, from documentation templates and custom forms and billing.

Aside from certified EHR software, we also offer fully integrated patient portal and practice management software. Practices that use our patient portal software, in addition to our endocrinology EHR, have the option of allowing patients to upload glucose readings themselves. Once approved by a member of your staff, this data can be added automatically into the patient’s EHR chart. When patients get involved in their care, everyone wins. Endocrinologists can ensure their patients’ health records are complete and accurate, allowing them to deliver better care.

Interested in learning more about how our EHR software for endocrinologists and diabetologists can benefit your practice? Call 480-782-1116 to contact us today.

Pain medicine experts and pain management EHR vendors alike will be descending on Phoenix, Arizona this year, from November 21 to 24, for the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine’s annual meeting. The 12th annual scientific and educational event will provide a variety of opportunities for attendees to network with other physicians while learning about new and innovative pain management practices and techniques.

Healthcare professionals attending ASRA Fall 2013 will be able to attend lectures, courses and workshops, with topics ranging from “Botulinum Toxin Injection for Headache” to “Complementary and Alternative Medicine.” Other new and Special Session workshops announced for the fall meeting include:

• Impact of the Affordable Care Act on Pain Medicine
• Pharmacologic Controversies in Pain Medicine: Pro-Con Debate
• Long-Term Efficacy and Cost-Effectiveness of Pain Interventional Techniques: Pro-Con Debate
• Anticoagulation and Interventional Pain Procedures

Pain management specialists will be able to select content based on their preferred learning styles and individual educational needs. In fact, many of the workshops will be hands-on and interactive, allowing participants to practice skills on live models and/or cadavers.

ASRA Fall 2013 is also set to feature an Exhibit Hall where attendees will be able to talk to pain management and anesthesiology EHR software vendors, like 1st Providers Choice, and learn about other pain medicine-related products and services. EHR software designed specifically for the pain medicine specialty can simply workflow and improve the efficiency of many clinical and administrative processes.

To learn more about the 12th Annual Pain Medicine Meeting, click here.

About ASRA: The American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine is the largest subspecialty medical society in anesthesiology. Their mission is to advance the science and practice of regional anesthesia and pain medicine by addressing the clinical and professional educational needs of physicians and scientists. Originally founded in 1923, ASRA has about 4,000 active members, including pain specialists, physicians and scientists from around world.

For behavioral health organizations the advantages of switching to a mental health EHR are many. Yet, few EHR vendors have produced a tried-and-true software solution suitable for behavioral health providers. With 1st Providers Choice, psychiatrists, psychologists, professional counselors and other mental health providers have finally found an end-to-end EHR solution that meets their extensive charting needs.

Senior PsychCare (SPC) recently implemented our mental health EHR and billing modules across its various Texas locations and has achieved improved results in billing and patient care. Their more than 60 mental health providers have benefitted from simplified workflows, more efficient documentation, customized reports, and more. Following are some of the features that SPC’s behavioral health specialists have benefitted from:

Specialized content and customization: EHR systems designed with mental health providers in mind include features that are most relevant to behavioral health specialists. The systems also allow for a high level of customization in order to meet the specific needs of providers practicing within the mental health field. For SPC, this has included specialty-specific diagnoses and treatment plans, preventative care resources and psychiatric management tools, among others.

Real-time data: With mental health-specific EHR software, providers can create reports to conduct analyses of patient progress. All it takes is a few quick mouse clicks to export the data from the EHR.

Alerts and reminders: EHR software for mental health facilities allows providers to set up daily, weekly or monthly alerts. This can be useful for following up with suicidal patients or with those taking antipsychotics with potentially harmful side effects. This has been beneficial, in SPC’s case, for treating patients at Long Term Care facilities, as they need continuous monitoring and follow-up care.

Continuity of care: SPC maintains active contact with other physicians regarding changes in their patients’ mental status, diagnostic services, psychological treatments, and medications – and EHR software allows for thorough documentation of these changes. With mental health EHR software, behavioral health specialists at SPC are also able to share visit notes with other providers responsible for their patients’ care.

Learn more about our mental health-specific EHR features. Contact us today to speak with one of our expert EHR consultants or to schedule a free demo.

About Senior PsychCare: Senior PsychCare was founded by physician and specialized psychiatrist Dr. Leo Borrell, a leader in innovative care for stress and age-related problems. SPC is affiliated with Medipsych and Senior Psychological Care of Houston, San Antonio and Dallas, and employs more than 60 mental health providers in facilities throughout these major Texas cities. SPC provides independent evaluations, psychiatric management and mental health services. They also work in collaboration with mental health programs and medical providers who lack the resources of a comprehensive team of medical health specialists.

Denied claims are a large source of lost revenue for many healthcare organizations. Yet, physician practices often lack the resources to process them in a timely fashion. It is important for claims to be submitted accurately and error-free the first time around, to avoid revenue cycle setbacks and ensure timely reimbursement. One way to accomplish this is by using a medical billing or electronic claims scrubbing EMR.

Claims scrubbers analyze the data attached to a claim to ensure that all required data is present before the claims is submitted to the payer. This includes patient demographics, insurance information, procedure and diagnosis codes, and date of service. It is important to note, however, that not all claims scrubbers offer the same features and functionalities. In fact, while a basic claims scrubber might check that certain fields are filled out on the claim, it might not verify the accuracy of the entered data. Therefore, it is important to use a claims scrubbing system with advanced capabilities.

It is also helpful to rely on software that uses the same tools as the major insurance carriers, meaning that if a payer’s tool is updated your practice gets the same update as well. This allows healthcare professionals to fully identify errors that an insurance carrier might catch, thus avoiding a delay in payment.

With 1st Providers Choice’s Advanced Clinical Editing electronic claims software, not only can billing staff submit clean claims the first time, reducing denials and rejections and increasing revenue, but partially-billed procedures can also be corrected in order to ensure maximum reimbursement. Through automated alerts, staff can be notified when edits might be necessary, and they can also review any guidelines and regulations that may have triggered the alerts.

Additional features and benefits of our advanced claims scrubbing software:

• Integrate superior clinical editing features into existing claims management workflow
• Actively track, control and prevent denied claims
• Streamline claims editing with our extensive knowledgebase of coding relationships (from commercial payers to Medicare)
• View multiple claims rules on the same screen
• Increase efficiency and revenue with electronic billing

For more information about our electronic claims practice management software and how it might benefit your healthcare organization, contact us at 480-782-1116.