What’s New with Interoperability within Epic Systems?
(Originally posted on LinkedIn)
When you think of hospitals or healthcare in general, only a few things tend to come to mind: doctors, nurses, patient care, or perhaps insurance, copays/deductibles, etc., which are all that we see. However, many of us don’t put much thought into what goes on behind the scenes. Lab work, IT, and billing are all behind the curtain, and in large healthcare systems, there is interoperability between all of these departments. Interoperability is a huge component of our healthcare, running much more smoothly on the front end, because of all the backend work that has gone on for months, and even years, prior to you stepping foot into a facility.
Specific to Epic, interoperability is the function of all modules working congruently to provide the best care with as little hassle to the patient as possible. Think of a scenario when someone ends up in the ER, is admitted to the ICU, is having lab work completed, gets transitioned to an Ortho unit as they recover, has the pharmacy providing medications to them, gets discharged, follows up with the PCP who works in a different facility, gets put on additional physical therapy, and then gets their bill afterward. All of these units/modalities are operating off of a different module within the Epic system. Some people may think, “Okay, but that’s just how it should have always been, right?” but they don’t realize the amount of blood, sweat, tears, and time that goes into making these systems function effortlessly together!
What are the strengths of Epic Interoperability?
First and foremost, when a patient file is being updated in real-time by the system, the next person viewing the chart can see all pertinent information. Healthcare is forever better and lives are saved by all pivotal information being immediately available to those in charge of their care. Also, vendors that are trying to provide better care are creating ways to make sure their data is interoperable within Epic. Let’s use Telemedicine as an example. Telehealth companies, especially during the pandemic, opened up their systems to ensure a lack of duplicate work needing to be done in the Epic system after the visit was concluded. When a patient’s PCP is done with a video visit, and if they are interoperable with Epic, that information is logged within the chart instantaneously.
Where are areas of opportunity?
This is a tricky question when taking interoperability at face value. Many times, an entire healthcare system isn’t solely using one EHR. There are plenty starting that transition, which can take years, and people look forward to the day when all systems work seamlessly across the healthcare system.
With interoperability, the real question is how can we advance it further? How can we get EHR vendors to partner together so that we can tackle a global pandemic, together, with the same data and not just have the information within our own demographic or health system? One thing that is advancing by the day is personal devices. Can our smartphones, watches, or exercise devices help to update our records to show red flags when they start to arise and help to transition our care to preventative and not be as reactive? The steps to this technology have already begun as we see stories like THIS ONE where an apple watch is credited for notifying emergency services of a man's hard fall. Or THIS setting that allows apple watch users to detect irregular heart rhythms, such as an AFib episode, that can potentially be life-saving.
All of that said, interoperability is an unsung hero in Epic and healthcare, and there are people that have had these amazing ideas for decades that are now coming to fruition. Ideas that are an afterthought to the normal patient or someone that may just work in one segment of healthcare. We are forever better when our care is worked on in unison.