It is so important because it ensures that doctors, surgeons, and other medical providers have the information that they need in order to provide sufficient care. However, for it to be truly effective, all healthcare facilities need to adopt interoperability.
To date, healthcare practitioners and organisations have been restricted to sending information on one secure messaging network. This has left gaps in their ability to securely deliver or receive documents and has meant that there has been a continued reliance on manual methods of handling patient information.
The medical software industry has been working towards this milestone for a while now and we are happy to be a market leader in interoperable messaging for healthcare.
ReferralNet has introduced a modern, effective, and secure eHealth approach to handling patient information and ensuring secure messaging between healthcare providers. This health technology works across organisational boundaries and supports a system-to-system connection to share information between two or more messaging networks more securely. It provides a holistic approach to view patient information regardless of the differences in technologies and networks used by different healthcare providers like hospitals, doctors, departments, and pharmacies.
As a result of recognising each other’s network, and having different digital health networks in the loop, there is an increase in network size, reach, capability, and the system is continuously expanding.
The volume of digital information sharing taking place today between healthcare providers, hospitals, and doctors is immense. This is a positive sign because it removes the use of handwritten notes and manual data sharing.
Today, most healthcare professionals are using secure messaging platforms which are not compatible with one another unless they conform to a strict set of rules for identification and a limited set of message (document) structures. Providers can no longer rely on outdated technology or non-connected platforms.
Interoperability bridges the gap and enhances information sharing across organisational boundaries. With ReferralNet users are not only able to use the platform for secure sharing of essential patient records but also complete information like medical information, lab tests, clinical summaries, pharmacy records, prescriptions, etc. In addition, users of ReferralNet can now connect with other ReferralNet users and Argus users from the one platform, and securely exchange messages with more healthcare providers across Australia, as an integral part of the Australian health system.
As ReferralNet recognised this blocker to the digital flow of patient data across healthcare providers, we also implemented a much wider range of the commonly used documents covering the transfer of care, including discharge summaries, referrals, progress notes and diagnostic reports from pathology and radiology providers, using the older but much more widely-used document formats based on international standards (HL7v2.3).
The biggest advantage of this is that users can now send and receive confidential patient information securely across a larger network of healthcare providers.
Since December 2017, Global Health’s ReferralNet and Telstra Health’s Argus have witnessed an average growth of 15 per cent per month since they became interoperable with each other for secure messaging.
Interoperability bridges the gap and enhances information sharing across organisational boundaries. It ensures that doctors, surgeons, and other medical providers are connected as an integral part of the Australian healthcare system, and they have the information that they need to provide sufficient care. In addition, for healthcare providers, there are the following benefits:
Interoperability allows healthcare providers to provide patients with better care and improve their healthcare journey. It gives providers a holistic view of the patient past digital medical record and medical history. The patient feels more confident in their healthcare provider, and the service they are receiving.
Interoperability is a health innovation that can affect healthcare organisations, patients, doctors, pharmacies, medical staff, etc. It improves the quality of medical service at hospitals, clinics, and other such arrangements, in addition to enhancing patient care and coordination within an organisation. As a result, the patient gets individual attention and care, which is critical for client retention.
Better interoperability decreases time spent on data collection, data sharing, understanding of the patient’s medical history, requesting and preparing lab reports, prescribing medicines, and writing referrals. It cuts down the time spent on administrative tasks and increases the time doctors spend with the patients.
Interoperability does not occur in a vacuum. Different standards are used to implement a secure messaging system among healthcare providers. Health data standards are categorised into four groups: content, transport, terminology, and privacy and security. Each of these standards is crucial for the implementation and operation of a dynamic and reliable interoperability system.
Manual methods of healthcare data collection and processing can take hours. It is costly for the organisation and overwhelming, repetitive, and cumbersome for the staff. Furthermore, it involves a higher risk of errors and breaches of patient privacy. Interoperability can improve your organisation’s overall productivity by:
When interoperability becomes part of your organisation, patient healthcare will ultimately improve. Doctors and medical staff will have quick access to reliable information at any given time. No longer will they need to spend time collecting data that should already be available, therefore the focus will be entirely on patient care. Our aim is to keep the patient as the central part of your network.
ReferralNet is a leader in the medical interoperability and secure messaging sector. We have already improved the productivity of many healthcare organisations with our innovations. Put yourself at the centre of the digital health network. If you want to avail the benefits of healthcare interoperability, you can contact our team. We will undertake an interoperability readiness check of your organisation and discuss how we can help you.