While healthcare and health data interoperability begins to take center stage in 2021 thanks to growing momentum and the 21st Century cures Act specifically, the modern EHR has long been the backbone of realizing the potential for aggregated and seamlessly shared patient information. The competitive nature of vendors, paired with limited regulatory pressure however, has meant that organizations and the technology itself hasn’t exactly been asked to do anything terribly impressive, despite the definitive technological ability to do so. That’s all changing though, as we’re moving forward with incremental improvements and regulatory standards, and vendors are starting to play nice with each other for the greater good of the patient and caregiver both.
The rest of this publication will focus specifically around Epic, but be on the lookout soon for similar summaries of other key EHR vendors and interoperability avenues.
The Epic EHR
Open.Epic is your one-stop shop for all things interoperability (and more) from an Epic perspective. From detailed documentation on interface standards and specifications required for transmitting between Epic and non-Epic systems, to FHIR development information, C-CDA document transmission, HIE integration, and more, there’s information on just about any scenario you might be interested in.
It also links to The Epic App Orchard (great name, right?!?), which provides documentation and testing opportunities for hundreds of ready-to-use Epic specific APIs. From clinically validated content, to patient-facing mechanisms like symptom checks and automated messaging, to enhanced telehealth and IT/technical support integrations, there’s something that can improve just about everyone’s day-to-day.
Furthermore, with standard Epic application configuration and deployment, did you know that you can also…
· Easily obtain data about which organizations you are exchanging records and data from most frequently, highlighting which avenues you may have opportunity to do so in greater capacity
· Merge visit information from other organizations into yours, giving caregivers wholistic information for care received, no matter where it was received
· Combine portal information for patients who have them at multiple organizations
· Directly exchange lab and imaging results between organizations
· Automate record requests in both the inpatient and outpatient settings
· Connect to and exchange information directly with payer entities to analyze and reduce costs
· Compare your interoperability statistics and progress against other Epic organizations
