By Taylor SimpsonImagine
living in a neighborhood where people speak a different language in every house
on your block. Now imagine that it’s your job to work with the people in each
of those houses to get them all speaking a common language that enables them to
work together toward a common goal. Finally, imagine that your own
well-being depends upon how well the people in the various houses communicate
with each other.
Does
that sound like a difficult task?
Of
course it does, and essentially, it is one of the biggest challenges that
health information exchanges (HIEs) across the nation currently face. Each
hospital and clinic has its own electronic health record (EHR) system in which patients’
medical records are stored. Each EHR speaks its own language, making it
difficult to exchange data between different EHR systems at different
locations.
But
how does this affect you?
As
a patient, you may receive care at multiple locations and perhaps you would
like for the health care providers at all those facilities to have access to your
information. Without having a common language, it’s difficult to exchange that
data between providers at different locations quickly and easily. However,
if each facility speaks a common language, it enables better transfer of
information, potentially leading to better care because those providers have
more complete and timely information with which they can better treat you.
HIEs
across the country, and the Louisiana Health Information Exchange (LaHIE) in
particular, are paving the way for standardization of communication between
providers, partnering with EHR vendors, government agencies and non-profit
organizations to push forward the use of “common languages” between
organizations that provide health care for you.
The goal is to have everyone involved in your
community of care speaking the same language, so that your health records flow
seamlessly and quickly from provider to provider and are available where and
when they’re needed. For patients like you, the end result of having this
‘common language’ in place will be better, safer care, and that’s a language we
can all speak.
