Health IT Interoperability Remains Elusive

To assess the state of HIT, Modern Healthcare conducted a survey in 2015, known as the 25^th annual Modern Healthcare Survey of Executive Opinions on Key Health Information Technology Issues. The results on interoperability of EHRs were disappointing. Only 11% of respondents to the survey said their organizations were able to routinely exchange electronic patient information with other providers across the country.

That meager showing comes 11 years after President George W. Bush created the Office of the National Coordinator for Health In-formation Technology with a mandate to implement a “nationwide interoperable health information technology infrastructure.

Only 17% of respondents to the 2015 survey indicated their hospitals and physician offices can move patient records around their home states. Just 21% reported they can exchange records within their regions. In contrast, 21% of respondents said they aren't exchanging electronic information at all, either within or outside of their organizations.

Still, an overwhelming majority of respondents (71%) were optimistic they'll be able to exchange a “core data set” of patient information nationally by the end of 2017 in keeping with a goal set in the ONC's “interoperability road map” released in January 2015. And 72% of those taking our survey opined that achieving nationwide interoperability would be of either high value (23%) or moderate value (49%) to their organizations. The road map signaled a shift in emphasis by federal health IT policymakers away from EHR adoption and toward health information exchange.

The original article by Joseph Conn can be found at the following address: http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20150411/MAGAZINE/304119986