Healthcare providers now rely heavily on Electronic Health Records (EHR). Due to the complex nature of the process, understanding EHR requirements and the costs and nuances (as well as the modern approaches) involved in EHR integration is crucial.
This blog aims to provide EHR integration insights to help healthcare stakeholders make the best decisions.
EHR Integration Overview
Imagine a healthcare provider having a patient’s health information seamlessly accessible in one place, updated in real-time, and available whenever needed. This is the power of EHR integration.
In simplest terms, EHR integration connects an Electronic Health Record system with other crucial healthcare applications, technology, and data sources. This integration ensures consistent and accurate sharing of patient information across various platforms.
Not only does this improve the efficiency of healthcare delivery, but it also enhances patient care by providing a comprehensive view of each patient’s health history.
Consider the Benefits
– A unified patient record that allows you to make better-informed decisions.
– Streamlined workflows that reduce redundant data entry.
– Less risk of manual errors.
However, the approach to EHR integration can come in many shapes and sizes. Traditional EHR integration, for example, can require overcoming significant challenges, such as ensuring system compatibility and maintaining data security to realize the benefits outlined above.
Despite these hurdles, the long-term gains—improved patient outcomes and operational efficiency—are worth the effort to explore an approach to EHR integration that works for you.
So, Where Do You Begin?
Assess your current systems to identify integration needs. This level of evaluation is easier said than done and must be approached both from a clinical perspective and a business operations perspective.
For example, a clinician may evaluate the EHR and gaps in patient data, such as those that affect the care continuum or the ability to make informed decisions for treatment.
Other stakeholders will want to analyze a care team’s ability to meet quality performance goals, improve risk adjustment accuracy, or recognize more revenue from streamlined operations.
EHRs are powerful tools and, with the right strategy and partners, have the potential to serve as central databases while integrating seamlessly with various best-of-breed solutions, applications, insights, and stakeholders.
Traditional EHR Integration Methods
A traditional approach to EHR integration connects Electronic Health Records (EHR) with other healthcare systems and solutions to ensure patient data, insights, and additional functionality work together smoothly and seamlessly.
There are several types of EHR integrations, such as:
- Data exchange: Sharing patient information between systems
- Functional integration: Embedding third-party applications natively within the EHR
- Device integration: Connecting medical devices to the EHR
- Health Information Exchange (HIE): Connecting to regional or national health networks
- Patient portal integration: Allowing patients to access their health data
- Analytics integration: Connecting EHR data to business intelligence tools
- Billing system integration: Linking clinical data with financial systems
- And more…
EHR integration is often accomplished by working with EHR integration vendors using various methods to connect data or systems, such as Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and Health Level Seven (HL7) standards. APIs allow real-time data exchange, while HL7 ensures the data is correctly understood across platforms.
Once connected (and having overcome significant time and cost barriers), these systems can share important patient information like medical histories and lab results. This data exchange improves care quality, reduces errors, and boosts efficiency.
Integration tools map and transform information into the proper formats to keep data consistent and usable. This process can be complex, and careful testing must be done to ensure data is transferred correctly and securely.
Success in EHR integration depends on good planning, the right technology, and ongoing monitoring. When done well, it streamlines workflows and significantly enhances patient care.
Traditional EHR Integration Challenges
While traditional EHR integration offers many benefits, it also comes with several challenges:
- Compatibility Issues: Healthcare systems often use varying technology, which may not communicate with each other. This can make integration difficult and require customized solutions to ensure smooth data exchange.
- Data Security: Integrating EHRs involves sharing sensitive patient information across multiple platforms. Ensuring this data remains secure and complies with privacy regulations is a significant challenge.
- Cost: The cost of implementing EHR systems in the traditional way can be expensive, especially for smaller practices. Costs include the technology, time, and resources needed to implement and maintain the system.
- Training and Adoption: Even after successful integration, you must train end users and centralized staff to use the new system and resources effectively, such as reporting. Resistance to change and a steep learning curve can slow the adoption process, reducing the immediate benefits of integration.
- Ongoing Maintenance: EHR integration isn’t a one-time effort. It requires continuous monitoring and updates to keep the system running smoothly and address any issues arising over time.
- Data Migration: Transferring existing patient data into a new integrated system can be complex and time-consuming. Ensuring that all data is accurately migrated without loss or errors is a critical challenge.
For a simpler and faster approach, explore a middleware platform like Vim, which allows healthcare builders to get to market faster and providers to access critical patient information through enhanced EHR workflows.
Vim’s Approach to EHR Integration
Vim offers a modern clinical workflow integration solution that connects data, applications, patient-specific insights, and care across the health system with our middleware platform.
Vim falls into a niche category in which its proprietary EHR integration infrastructure unlocks provider EHR workflows at scale and is leveraged by healthcare stakeholders for bi-directional data exchange.
Instead of a healthcare organization integrating one-by-one with solutions and applications or healthcare tech builders and developers integrating with each EHR individually, there is an alternative solution.
Vim is a multi-application, multi-source platform that scales across the most popular ambulatory EHRs.
Vim deploys applications, enhances provider experiences, and creates two-way data exchange between payers, MSOs/VBC-enablers, healthcare innovators, and providers at the point of patient care – in days, not months – to:
- Deliver patient-specific, actionable insights and native application experiences at the point of patient care (from diverse sources).
- Empower stakeholder collaboration and drive innovation with features like consistent user experiences, contextual application triggers, and bi-directional data exchange.
- Streamline clinical documentation retrieval directly from the EHR, enhancing workflow efficiency.
- Reduce administrative burden by automating and streamlining manual processes.
- Deliver data/actionable insights through Vim’s suite of core applications (risk adjustment, quality performance, referral guidance, etc.)
Vim Customers Leverage Our EHR Integration Tech in Two Ways
- Deliver data/actionable insights through Vim’s suite of core applications (risk adjustment, quality performance, referral guidance, etc.).
- Deploy their custom applications on top of Vim’s in-EHR connectivity and enablement layer.
EHR Integration Best Practices
Integrating EHR systems with other solutions and tech requires careful planning and execution. Here are some best practices to follow:
Thorough Planning and Assessment
Start by evaluating current systems and specific workflows that take a provider out of the EHR – especially those that influence patient care. For example, does a provider have to leave the EHR to review payer gaps in care within a spreadsheet or review a patient insights portal? These workflows can be incorporated into the EHR with a middleware platform like Vim.
Diverse EHR Evaluation
Selecting the right EHR system and integration tools is crucial, but what happens if you are a stakeholder managing a provider network with a diverse EHR landscape? Leveraging a modern EHR integration solution that integrates with clinical workflows seamlessly at the point of care AND can support multiple EHRs is critical.
Prioritize Data Security
Protecting patient information should be a top priority for all stakeholders. It is important to use encryption, access controls, and regular security audits to safeguard data during and after any integration or data-sharing process. Compliance with regulations like HIPAA is, of course, essential.
Involve Key Stakeholders
Engage a buying committee in the process, from end users to IT teams, early in the process. Their input can help tailor the integration to meet your needs to avoid EHR implementation challenges.
Additionally, identifying what success looks like as a team and determining how this will be measured gives everyone ownership over its long-term effectiveness.
Comprehensive Training
Ensure all end users are well-trained. Training should include the technical aspects and how the integrated solution can improve workflows, stakeholder collaboration, and ultimately, patient care. Proper training can reduce resistance and increase adoption.
Test Rigorously
Conduct thorough testing before fully rolling out the integrated system. This helps identify and fix any issues before they impact day-to-day operations. Include both functionality testing and user acceptance testing in your process.
Monitor and Optimize
After integration, continuously monitor performance. Gather feedback from users and make necessary adjustments. Regular updates and maintenance are vital to running the system smoothly and effectively.
Plan for Data Migration (applicable to a traditional integration approach)
Carefully plan how patient data will be transferred to the new integrated system. Ensure that all data is accurately migrated and that there are no interruptions in patient care during this process.
As an alternative to this process, with a modern approach to integration, an automated bi-directional data exchange method is leveraged along with a provider-facing UI that surfaces patient-specific data at the right time during active EHR encounters without the heavy lifting of a data migration process.
Support and Troubleshooting
Provide ongoing support to address any issues that arise after integration. A dedicated IT team or support service can help resolve problems quickly and keep the system functioning optimally.
By following these best practices, healthcare stakeholders can ensure a smoother, more effective EHR integration that enhances patient care and improves operational efficiency.
Conclusion
EHR integration is a powerful tool that enhances the quality and efficiency of healthcare by connecting various systems and streamlining the flow of patient information.
It’s important to remember that the traditional approaches to EHR integration may not be the best solution for all stakeholders.
Ultimately, successful EHR integration leads to better patient care, improved workflow efficiency, and a more connected and collaborative healthcare system.
FAQ
What Information Cannot Be Found Within the EHR?
While Electronic Health Records (EHR) contain a lot of valuable information about a patient’s health, there are some things they typically don’t include:
- Personal Notes: Doctors or nurses may keep informal notes or observations that are not part of the official EHR.
- Non-Medical Information: Personal details like a patient’s financial status, job history, or social situation are often not recorded in the EHR unless they directly affect treatment. Some industry stakeholders have recently focused on better incorporating social determinants of health (SDoH) into care workflows and ensuring they are documented as structured data instead of within the free notes sections of the EHR.
- Third-Party Records: Information from other healthcare providers that hasn’t been shared or integrated into the EHR system may not be included.
- Communication Records: Emails, text messages, or phone conversations between a patient and healthcare provider might not be documented in the EHR.
- Legal or Administrative Records: Legal documents, billing information, and insurance claims are often stored separately from the EHR.
While EHRs are comprehensive, they focus mainly on medical and treatment-related information, so some personal, legal, and communication details might not be included.
What is the Difference Between EHR and EMR?
Electronic Medical Records (EMR)
An EMR is a digital version of a patient’s chart. It contains medical and treatment history from one healthcare provider.
EMRs are primarily used by doctors to track patient data in their offices. They assist with diagnosis and treatment but are typically restricted to the clinic or practice where they were developed.
Electronic Health Records (EHR)
On the other hand, an EHR is a more comprehensive digital record that includes all the information found in an EMR but is designed to be shared across different healthcare providers.
