How Providers Are Exchanging Health Information

Wed, 4/24/2013 - 9:10amChad Johnson0 Comments var addthis_config = {ui_click: true,data_track_clickback: true,data_ga_social: true,data_ga_property: UA-317164-6}; There are a handful of ways care providers can choose to interface, or connect, to external health organizations, be they a member of the local medical community or an official health information exchange (HIE) organization. Formal HIEs are gaining steam thanks to maturity and providers’ motivation to meet Meaningful Use Stage 2 requirements, but the active process of exchanging health information – the verb, not the noun – has been the goal since the HITECH act pushed the industry into the modern world via electronic health records. So how, exactly, do health organizations send health records to an external organization? Since “by hiring a professional” doesn’t really provide you with any real knowledge, let’s examine a handful of HL7 message transport methods most commonly used by our customers and throughout the health industry. Each method has pros and cons, which will be explored. Because there are several different methods currently in use, I’ll present the methods in a timeline layout, of sorts, beginning with VPN and ending with Direct messaging, which is the direction the industry is headed. But, first things first: if you’re going to connect externally, be sure that you’re doing so using designated standards in a “meaningful” way. Meaningful Use Stage 2 rules s...
Source: NeoTool Healthcare IT Blog - Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Source Type: blogs