HIM-615 Healthcare Standards Paper

Health information technology is a vital part of enhancing quality care to patients. Health information technology (HIT) standards allow health care organizations to exchange information based on specific methods for linking systems together to attain interoperability (Alotaibi & Federico, 2017). These standards are essential because they may enhance data security, transportation, format or structure, and meanings of specific terms and codes. According to HealthIT.gov (2021), standards development entities (SDOs) define, update, and maintain standards through a cooperative approach that entails the targeted users. The aim of this paper is to discuss the significance of health information technology (HIT) standards in healthcare delivery in the country.

Top Five Reasons Standards Are Important in the Health Care System

A core aspect of developing standards in the health care system is to attain interoperability which denotes the capability of various information infrastructures to get, exchange, incorporate, and collectively utilize data in a coordinated way, in and over different boundaries that include organizational to national. Interoperability offers prompt and seamless exchange of information and optimizes individual and health populations across the care continuum (HealthIT.gov, 2021). The implication is that the exchange of healthcare data structures, interfaces, and standards allows adequate access of data and its sharing appropriately and securely across the care spectrum based on appropriate settings and relevant stakeholders, including persons.

Thirdly, standards offer guidelines for practices that can be deployed in evaluating the effectiveness of HIT devices and applications to ensure that they offer intended benefits to providers and patients (Alotaibi & Federico, 2017). The implication is that health practitioners can evaluate their clinical competencies and develop effective interventions to enhance overall quality by sharing information (HIMSS, 2021). The competence of any provider, including nurses, can be assessed if there are existing HIT standards where they meet the minimum requirements. For instance, standards ensure that nurses develop policies that focus on patient-centered care through effective decisions that they make through the shared information.

Fourthly, standards offer a common language and set of anticipations that allow interoperability among systems and devices. Standards enable healthcare providers, facilities, and patients to share data irrespective of the application and supplier. Through the standards, stakeholders access information that they can digest about individuals and enhance healthcare’s general coordination and delivery. Fifthly, standards are essential for providers and suppliers to develop terms and terminologies that enhance the overall security of systems and protect patient data. A core aspect of these provisions is the protection of privacy and confidentiality by healthcare organizations and providers leveraging health information technology (HIT) (HIMSS,2021). Standards in HIT are a vital aspect of ensuring that providers, patients, and facilities share and exchange information securely and efficiently.

Most Vital HIT Standards for Current Organization

Interoperability allows organizations to exchange information to enhance overall patient care provision. Imperatively, the most critical HIT standards for the current organization is Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource (FHIR). The standard is at level seven in

international health positions for exchanging healthcare information electronically. The standard is considered the next-generation exchange model that the healthcare community is adopting to advance interoperability. Providers use electronic health records (EHRs) to represent patient data in various ways that include medical history, medications, and experiences (HealthIT.gov, n.d). FHIR offers a way for these entities to represent and share information among providers and organizations in a standard manner irrespective of one’s local EHRs system and stored data format (Goundrey-Smith, 2018). The FHIR standards combine the most appropriate features from the previous standards into typical specifications while ensuring flexibility to satisfy the needs of different use cases within the broader healthcare ecosystem. The implication is that these standards focus on implementation and deploy the most current web technologies to assist in fast adoption across the care continuum.

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The FHIR standard significantly influences the organization as it enhances its ability to offer quality coordinated care to patients through a comprehensive understanding of their needs. The standard consists of foundational, infrastructure, administrative, and data exchange abilities that allow the organization to make effective clinical decisions (Goundrey-Smith, 2018). Further, it has clinical reasoning capabilities that enable any organization and its care providers to leverage resource collection, extensions, and profiles to deploy clinical knowledge artifacts, including clinical decision support rules. The standard enables the exact requests for information to be deployed to enhance care during service provision (clinical decision support) and assess care after it happens (quality measurement.

Standard that Requires Improvement

One standard that needs improvement is the Validated Healthcare Directory Implementation Guide (VHDir IG), founded on FHIR Version 4.0. The standard describes architectural considerations for organizations attesting to, validating, and exchanging data from a centralized source. The standard is developed from conceptualizing a national point of validated provider data. However, it requires implementers with diverse business needs, situations, and use cases to apply to them. The implication is that implementers may not apply all the content but only appropriate to them (FHIR, n.d). While the standard serves as a foundation for exchanging validated provider information, it requires an organization to combine it with other standards like the FHIR. The standard offers support for implementing more substantial applications for enhanced care provision. Improving its conceptual framework will enhance overall interoperability at the organizational level.

Conclusion

Health information technology (HIT) standards are critical because they offer secure frameworks to exchange information among providers and organizations. organizations need these vital standards to enhance interoperability and security of patient information. Frameworks like FHIR and VHDir IG offer standards that help organizations attain interoperability. Therefore, providers must leverage the existing capabilities to improve security and protect patient information using the most appropriate standards. Improving interoperability ensures the seamless flow of information and informed decision-making for providers in different care settings. Implementation of these standards is essential in providing quality care through the use of clinical support decision platforms.

References

Alotaibi, Y. K., & Federico, F. (2017). The impact of health information technology on patient

safety. Saudi medical journal, 38(12), 1173-1180. DOI: 10.15537/smj.2017.12.20631

FHIR (n.d). Validated Healthcare Directory Implementation Guide.

http://build.fhir.org/ig/HL7/VhDir/index.html

Goundrey-Smith, S. (2018). The connected community pharmacy: benefits for healthcare and

implications for health policy. Frontiers in pharmacology, 9, 1352.

DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2018.01352

HealthIT.gov (2021). Health IT Standards.

https://www.healthit.gov/topic/standards-technology/health-it-standards

Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, Inc. (HIMSS) (2021).

Interoperability

in Healthcare. https://www.himss.org/resources/interoperability-healthcare#Part1

HealthIT.gov (n.d). Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources® (FHIR®).

https://ecqi.healthit.gov/fhir