Strategic Interoperability: The Clinical and Business Imperative for Healthcare Organizations

Featuring the results of the HIMSS Analytics Interoperability Study

Introduction

Interoperability - the ability of health information systems to exchange, transform and interpret shared data across multiple systems and devices, and across organizational boundaries, in order to advance the health status of, and the effective delivery of healthcare for, individuals and communities - gained widespread attention in the United States when President Bush called for interoperable electronic health records (EHRs) in his 2004 State of the Union Address. This vision began to be executed in 2011 when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) started the EHR Incentive Program, which transitioned from setting up the basic EHR functionalities in Stage 1 to focusing on patient engagement and health information exchange (HIE) in the program's Stage 2 meaningful use criteria. Since 2012, when Stage 2 criteria were released, hospitals and health systems have engaged in a big push to enable interoperability of health IT (HIT) systems and devices.

HIMSS Analytics conducted a survey in August 2013 to assess the progress of hospitals' and health systems' interoperability initiatives - the drivers for their efforts, benefits they are seeking, challenges they face and new opportunities interoperability provides.