The information should be useful
In the preliminary stages of EHR interoperability, attempts at meaningful information exchange have led to only modest success. Outside of private health systems that have developed their own proprietary interfaces, data extraction and sharing between disparate electronic platforms have yet to have a meaningful impact on patient care. In part, this is because the information is not provided to clinicians in a useful format. Even the CCD described above is often confusing and replete with extraneous information – filtering through it during a patient encounter can be tedious and frustrating. Also, ensuring data integrity can be a real challenge, not only technically, but also practically. Questions occur regularly, such as “Did the data come through in the correct fields?” or “Did the medical resident remember to include all of the medications or allergies associated with the patient?” Ultimately, physicians need to decide whether or not to trust the information they receive before making it a permanent part of a patient’s health record.
Dr. Notte is a family physician and clinical informaticist for Abington (Pa.) Memorial Hospital. He is a partner in EHR Practice Consultants, a firm that aids physicians in adopting electronic health records. Dr. Skolnik is associate director of the family medicine residency program at Abington Memorial Hospital and professor of family and community medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia.