Introduction
Today, we could observe drastic alterations that emerge under the impact of technologies. These become the distinct feature of the modern world as every sphere of human activity benefit for the use of innovative approaches to enhance efficiency and attain better outcomes. The healthcare sector is not an exclusion. Playing a critical role in the evolution of the human society by creating the basis for individuals well-being and soundness, medical facilities are nowadays engaged in diverse programs aimed at the reorganization by implementing outstanding IT technologies. Under these conditions, the issue of Health IT acquires the top priority at the moment as one of the potent tools to improve care delivery, results, and attain a high level of patients satisfaction (Jensen, 2013). The given paper delves into one of the most important topics associated with the health IT and discusses interoperabilitys meaningful features. The work opens with the introductory section that reveals the topicality of the issue. The next part provides a rationale for the selection of the topic for discussion, its importance, and role in the modern healthcare. The discussion section describes how the selected issue might impact the functioning of different health facilities and how existing information skills help to conduct this research. Finally, in the conclusion section, we summarize all findings assumptions presented in the document.
Rationale
Thus, the paper is devoted to the in-depth investigation of the issue of interoperability and its current status in diverse hospitals across the state. In general, it could be defined as the ability of multiple computer systems to interact by exchanging information and using it with different purposes (Jensen, 2013). Outstanding practical use of this approach for the healthcare sector is apparent. Enhanced interoperability will provide health workers with an opportunity to align a continuity of care by sharing data about complex cases and suggesting each other how to work with patients who already have experiences of previous treatments (Thorpe, Gray, & Cartwright-Smith, 2016). In such a way, the first rationale for this topic selection is its significant practical use. Additionally, there is another aspect that should be considered when selecting this unit for the discussion. The fact is that the majority of the modern hospitals across the state take their path to interoperability (Hirsch, 2018). Innovative approaches to data exchange and the wide implementation of diverse technologies contribute to the creation of the digitalized environment characterized by the high speed of data transfer and improved cooperation between different health units across the state. For this reason, the further cultivation of interoperability as the way to facilitate the reorganization of the whole sector is fundamental for its further evolution. In such a way, hospitals movement toward interoperability is another aspect that could justify the choice of this topic. Finally, it will obviously introduce drastic changes in the structure of the healthcare sector.
Impact
There are several ways in which interoperability will impact practice and result in the appearance of new tendencies and approaches. First, as we have already said, the continuity of care could be achieved. For instance, diverse chronic illnesses or complex cases might demand a specific approach that involves numerous specialists from different healthcare units across the state. Regarding the outdated approach, health workers might suffer from the lack of access to medical recordings (Olronke, Soriyan, Gambo, & Olaleke, 2013). In other words, a patient does not possess data about his/her previous acute conditions and treatments. For this reason, in numerous cases, specialists should start from scratch. Applying the basic aspects of interoperability to the modern healthcare environment, specialists will be able to align efficient data exchange which will alter their functioning drastically. They will reduce the time demanded to analyze the previous history of treatment and prescribe needed medications.
Interoperability will also result in the significant reduction of medication errors or emergencies that appear due to the lack of knowledge about allergies or some other states that might impact treatment outcomes and precondition the development of complications. However, joining a new digitalized environment, medical units with high interoperability rates will acquire an opportunity to consult with previous specialists recordings and diagnose a patient. At the same time, by the statistics, a significant part of medication errors occur because of the lack of information about a patient, disregard of his/her allergies, or poor cooperation between different departments (Jensen, 2013). For this reason, the application of new enhanced methods to share data and improve interoperability will apparently help to minimize the risk of inappropriate treatment.
There is another advantage of the shift of priorities towards the interoperability. The fact is that the creation of a unified environment will provide numerous benefits both to caregivers and other vendors that are associated with this sphere. One should realize the fact that it is impossible to use a single standard for every unit because of their high diversity. However, the adherence to the basic interoperabilitys concerns might help to knit the most efficient vendors together and offer other hospitals patterns to align cooperation with them (Hirsch, 2018). In such a way, the movement towards the unified and efficient approach will be observed. Additionally, hospitals will find their own ways to achieve sustainability by suggesting incentives that will be useful for other units. This exchange will facilitate the evolution of the healthcare sector and its stability.
Nevertheless, one should also remember that the implementation of interoperability can be associated with some potential risk of the negative short-term effects that might arise because of the replacement of the outdated approaches with new ones and additional staff training. However, these effects should be mitigated by the efficient change strategy. It will help to support the unit and attain its enhanced functioning.
In conclusion, we should say that the accomplishment of this assignment demanded specific informatics skills to understand the peculiarities of the modern healthcare sector, basic IT trends and how they evolve. Additionally, the analysis of the ways the sphere will rise demands the improved comprehension of technologies impact on it. For this reason, we have to apply our basic informatics skills to understand how the behavior of different processes will alter.
Conclusion
Altogether, the modern healthcare sector could benefit from the use of technologies and implementation of the health IT. Using the idea of interoperability, the given paper proves this assumption. The topicality of this issue is evidenced by its ability to impact the majority of processes in the healthcare and attain their improvement. For this reason, hospitals have already started their movement towards interoperability and its cultivation with the primary aim to ensure their further evolution and align the continuity of care that will provide patients with numerous benefits and guarantee their satisfaction. That is why it is critical to create a unified digital environment facilitating more efficient data exchange.
References
Jensen, T. (2013). Design principles for achieving integrated healthcare information systems. Health Informatics Journal, 19(1), 29-45. Web.
Hirsch, M. (2018, March 29). Without a single solution, hospitals are taking different paths to interoperability. Fierce Healthcare. Web/
Olronke, I., Soriyan, A., Gambo, I., & Olaleke, J. (2013). Interoperability in healthcare: Benefits, challenges and resolutions. International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies 3(1):2028-9324. Web.
Thorpe, J., Gray, E., & Cartwright-Smith, L. (2016). Show es the data: The critical role health information plays in health system transformation. The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 44(4), 592-597. Web.