Health interoperability means the ability of health information systems to work together within and across different organisations to advance the effective delivery of healthcare for individuals and communities.
There are many of health and social care systems used across healthcare settings today. Bi-directional connectivity between systems in real-time, is essential to support health or care professionals in the delivery of safer, improved patient care. Patient/citizen data is the foundation to facilitating seamless coordination of care across multiple settings. Providing health or care professionals with the most up to date information about the patient/citizen, regardless of the system or healthcare setting.
Greater levels of access to real-time patient data from key health or care agencies aids more accurate treatments. Timely access to holistic views of a patient’s medical history, including medications, allergies, and procedures, health or adult social care plans can positively impact the provision of care through avoidance of errors and duplication of work, optimising patient/citizen outcomes.
The current strain on NHS resources has become increasingly prevalent through the pandemic. Exacerbated by the increasing backlog of non-COVID treatments. Therefore, increased pressures on healthcare services demonstrates the need for better connected healthcare systems. Foremost, patient data enhances the patient journey but also supports the surge in challenges faced by healthcare today. Interoperability effectively unites organisations, leading to joined up patient care. Three key data efficiencies are:
24/7 access to real-time patient data reduces duplication of effort and errors in patient management. The data provides healthcare professionals with a complete picture of a patient’s medical/social care history. Consequently, preventing duplication of tests between settings, and ensuring the patient only has to tell their story once.
Increased time efficiency:
Interoperability saves significant amounts of time. In the event of a patient being unable to communicate effectively, health or care professionals can fill in the gaps without needing to phone GP practices or other services. Also, clinicians can spend more time treating patients as the Medical Interoperability Gateway (MIG) extracts and presents patient data in an existing system.
Patient safety is paramount in the delivery of good care. The ability for clinicians to access data at the point of care is key to preventing medical errors. Therefore, accuracy and accessibility facilitated by interoperability solutions reduce these risks and improve quality of care.
It is fundamental to keep medically fit patients out of hospital at all times. Availability of patient data ensures patients experience smooth transition between health and care organisations. When clinicians have real-time data at their fingertips they gain a holistic view of patient information which supports rapid discharge.
Providing comprehensive views of accurate patient data improves continuity of care, preventing unnecessary hospital admissions. A truly integrated care model means that patients or citizens can be effectively treated in the right place, in General Practice, community or care home. Interoperability at its best provides all the information held on a patient regardless of system or setting. This can then be used to coordinate care effectively.
Many factors create delays in transfer, interoperability can help mitigate these challenges. To reduce transfer of care, distress and long stays in hospital for patients, clinical decisions can be made faster and safely upon viewing the medical record. Coordinating care between health and social care organisations and sharing information indicates if the patient is ready for transfer, reducing readmission.
The health and care landscape is complex. A true shared care record is one that is connected and not reliant upon data locked in disparate systems. Therefore, one benefit of this is the ability to access data using single sign on in an existing system or on a mobile device. Secondly, enabling data sharing not only from GPs, but providing bi-directional patient data feeds from acute, community, mental health or social care settings. Allowing all health and care professionals involved in a patient’s or citizens care to view richer datasets.
Joining up patient care improves the patient experience. Patient data tells a story, and when managing complex conditions or end of life care it is the data that allows healthcare professionals to provide treatment in line with patient wishes.
We’re at the heart of NHS innovation and the MIG is leading the way for interoperability standards of the future. We’re not just a technology provider. Our MIG Managed Service offers a range of interoperability solutions to connect you to health and social care data. Integrated by our 80+ accredited partner systems in real-time. Additionally, our core products and services can be shaped to your needs at every step of your digital strategy, and deployed at scale and pace. This support is underpinned by our interoperability expertise which enables your time and resources to be optimised according to your requirements.
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