Can meaningful use really be condensed into an elementary school exercise? Perhaps not in reality, but it works as an effective analogy for achieving success, says one interoperability specialist.
“We can find examples in basic third grade math – adding fractions,” explained Eric Mueller, president of the Seattle-based Washington Publishing Company’s service division. “When you add two unlike fractions, what occurs? A common denominator that first must be determined. Once found, the problem can be solved.”
There indeed is profound wisdom in simple third grade math, Mueller said, because “it gives us the direction and inspiration needed to solve complex problems.” Thus, he maintains that healthcare organizations must make interoperability initiatives a top priority – the hypothetical common denominator – while managing their budget demands and a multitude of other projects.
“We look for the common denominators and try to reduce friction, believing that an organization’s business problem has the map to technical solutions,” Mueller said. “We ask ourselves ‘How can we make integration easier and leverage the data and processes already in place?’ Interoperability should not mean a ‘forklift upgrade’ for all systems because that is not considered true interoperability or even a viable solution. Facilitating interoperability must be thought of in alignment with your business problem.”
John Kelly, chief information officer for Boston-based NaviNet, offers a similar thought on achieving meaningful use and industry-wide interoperability: “First, the executive leadership needs to assume that everything they know is wrong. Then they need to go home and watch how their teenagers use the Internet to manage their complex lives. There are certainly crises in healthcare right now that need to be and can be solved with technology. The real tsunami of crisis though is 10 years out and we need to be building the infrastructure now that those teenagers will be using to solve the problems we created.”
Meaningful use also has competitive aspects to it that providers need to consider, adds George Schwend, president and CEO of Denver-based Health Language.
“Hospitals and health systems are currently in a race to achieve meaningful use and qualify for Phase 1 financial incentives,” he said. “They recognize that interoperability will ultimately be a requirement for achieving the maximum payments under meaningful use, but they haven’t been able to move forward quickly because they are addressing several simultaneous time-sensitive priorities. This explains why many providers are still in the assessment phase as they attempt to make the right vendor selections. They must be certain that the solutions they choose can satisfy their business needs and meaningful use compliance as well as facilitating their migration to ICD-10-CM/PCS and achieving interoperability, and that can be a tall order.”
When assessing the state of meaningful use and interoperability in healthcare, Ashish Shah sees “heady times” in the industry.
“Interoperability is getting a lot of attention and we’re seeing a lot of progress and momentum – but there is also a lot of confusion,” said Shah, senior vice president and chief architect for Salt Lake City, Utah-based Medicity. “Everyone needs to remember that we shouldn’t let perfection get in the way of progress.
Interoperability work and developments will be happening in parallel. No homogenous structure or network is going to emerge overnight. Over time, network infrastructures may be rolled up or consolidated, but without tangible efforts now, that day will never come.”
