How do doctors feel about interoperability?

Understandably, independent physicians want to be able to do what they do best, take care of their patients. To be able to do that effectively, they need to have all of their patients’ data readily available to them. That data includes records of a patient’s visits to other providers, lab results, medications, diagnoses, and treatment plans.

Many physicians currently take advantage of the features of electronic health records (EHR) so they can input their own information regarding their patients. What they want is for those EHRs to talk to each other so they can coordinate care more efficiently and more effectively. Interoperability enables all physicians involved in treating a patient to access that patient’s complete medical information on screen rather than wasting time faxing, calling, and otherwise requesting the information from each other.

A recent article in Medical Economics cites surveys showing that “the majority of doctors believe that exchanging health information with other providers could help them deliver better care. But they don’t want to spend time searching for the information; they want it delivered to them.” Physicians do not want to spend more time making interoperability happen. They want their systems to talk to each other so they have the information they need when they need it, for their patients’ healthcare quality.

Elation understands the importance of coordinated care and the role that interoperability plays in that care. Our innovative Collaborative Health Record (CHR) was built with physicians’ and patients’ needs in mind. With CHR, all physicians are able to provide truly collaborative care. CHR automatically shares updates directly from the physician’s Clinical HER and other providers get immediately notified so they can take action based on the most up-to-date clinical information.

Physicians want to see a complete medical profile without the need to ask for – and wait for – that information. True EHR interoperability enables them to do just that, further improving their ability to provide quality healthcare for their patients.