Sami took her daughter to the hospital because she woke up with a stomach ache.
At reception, Sami provided her daughter’s name, age, contact information and other basic details.
Then she saw the doctor.
“Can you fill this out for us?”
So she did. Then she went to the lab.
Another form.
Then billing.
Another form.
By the fifth form, Sami was wondering if her daughter had somehow been registered at five different hospitals.
She hadn’t. She was in the same hospital, moving between departments that needed much of the same information. For patients, disconnected healthcare systems can turn a simple hospital visit into a frustrating exercise in repeating, remembering and re-entering information. And the problem does not stop with the patient.
What is healthcare system integration?
Healthcare system integration connects the different systems involved in delivering care so that relevant information can move securely between them. That could include patient registration, electronic health records, laboratory systems, billing, pharmacy and other clinical or administrative platforms.
Interoperability takes this a step further. It is the ability of different systems to exchange and use health information without requiring users to manually move information from one system to another.
In practical terms, it means the information should be able to move with the patient, rather than the patient having to carry it.
How do connected systems reduce friction for patients?
Think about Sami’s hospital visit again.
If the hospital’s systems were properly connected, she could provide her daughter’s information once at reception. That information could then be securely available to the appropriate, authorized teams as she moved through her care.
The doctor would have the information needed for the consultation. The lab could access the relevant details for the test. Billing would not need to start the information-gathering process all over again. Sami would spend less time filling forms and more time focusing on her daughter.
This is one of the practical benefits of health information exchange: appropriately sharing patient information can improve care coordination and reduce unnecessary duplication, including duplicate testing and repeated collection of information.
How do connected systems help healthcare staff?
Patients are not the only ones affected by disconnected systems. Behind every repeatedform is a staff member entering, checking, transferring or searching for information that may already exist somewhere else.
Using multiple unconnected digital health applications can create duplicated effort, increase data-entry errors and take health workers away from providing services to patients. Connected systems can reduce that administrative friction by allowing information to move between the systems and teams that need it.
That means fewer manual handoffs, less duplicate data entry and more time for the work that actually requires people.
Does integration mean replacing every system?
Not necessarily. Healthcare organizations often already have systems that serve specific purposes. The challenge is making those systems work together.
That can involve integration through APIs, shared data standards, interoperability frameworks and carefully designed workflows. Standards-based APIs, for example, can allow EHRs and other applications to exchange information in a consistent way.
The goal is not simply to add more technology. It is to make the technology already supporting the organization work better together.
For Sami, that difference is simple. She came to the hospital with a sick child. She should not have to become the person carrying her medical information from desk to desk.
Building a more connected healthcare system?
Insyt Solutions helps healthcare organizations improve their digital systems, workflows and data infrastructure so technology supports better-connected operations and experiences.
Let’s talk about what a more connected healthcare system could look like for your organization.