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Assignmnet states issue of interoperability should be keenly looked into & given priority and not being set for a late

Home, - SOLUTIONS TO CHALLENGE WITH interoperability IN THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM

 

         Interoperability can be defined as the capability of divergent information structures and software solicitation to exchange data, communicate and most importantly make use of the information that has been exchanged. The exchanged data should be permitted to be shared across the hospital lab, clinician, pharmacy and patient irrespective of the vendor. Better health protection interoperability is the topmost priority for healthcare service providers, bureaucratic, and most probably patients. Both public and private precinct are working towards smooth data interchange between large numbers of health IT technique to synchronize care over variegated health environment across the board. The main aim of this paper is to show the challenge facing interoperability and the solutions to the challenge.

            A major problem that is facing the interoperability of the healthcare system is; there is no consistent way to recognize or identify patients (Shah, S. 2015).  There is no way patients can be identified over numerous systems and providers. Patients details are recorded and stored because this information is stored in different systems there are likely to be errors when looking for details of a particular patient. The information can easily be lost. There is a problem during the transition of patient’s information which might cause a patient to be re-hospitalized. Most health centers have not adopted the use of electronic health records which is recommended by the government. In most hospitals, the use of technology is not well implemented and therefore it becomes very difficult for the information to be stored safely for later reference in case information for a certain patient is needed.

            This problem affects the workflow of different hospitals; it is tiresome and stressful to look for details of a particular patient. This leads to poor services being offered at the hospital in that patients cannot be treated without their details being seen. A patient can end up dying since there is no clear record about that particular patient. The information can easily be lost since the system is not improvised to store the information in a way that it can be shared. Workflow can be delayed as the system is not in a position to share the patient's information in the departments the patient is to be attended to. This problem is caused by lack of annexation which can interact with the unfolding technology. This is also caused by cybercrime threats whereby the systems are hacked and the data tempered with by the hackers. Health providers are still struggling with heath generated patient data from technology and mobile phones that are outdated. This is a critical problem affecting health care as a whole. Another cause of this problem can be as a result of blocking of information as providers fear that interoperability might threaten the upper hand they gain from accessing the patient's information (Siwicki, B. 2017). Developers of technology use blocking to prevent users from having access to competitor’s information. The solution has to be implemented to curb this issue as it is a major threat to interoperability in healthcare.

            There are quite a number of things to be put in place to ensure the problem is condoled. To overcome this challenge the staff should be educated on the right way to use the hospital systems and proper measures are put in place to limit the quantity of data that can be accessed.  The staff should also have limited access to internet applications and different sites (Siwicki, B. 2017). The systems need to be set in a way that they can share the data of a given patient; the systems should communicate with each other. The system should transfer data from one source to the next without interference. Cybersecurity measures should be put in place to curb insecurity that might be caused by hackers. The electronic health record should be set in a way that it accepts information from other sources, mostly information from nursing homes and daily settings (Siwicki, B. 2017). Another recommendation is that the hospital executives should put in place measures on how the data from outside sources can be integrated into their systems. The executives should work with physicians to see the problem they encounter using the EHRs, they should listen to their suggestions and finally come up with a solution. The issue of interoperability should be keenly looked into and given priority and not being set for a later date. The executive should work towards assigning codes to patients so that the patient is identified using the codes even if the systems change.

 

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