Small steps around the country

Information exchange and data transparency are happening among states in a varieties of steps that will add up to big leaps.

North Carolina signed into law a bill requiring hospitals to provide public pricing information on 140 common medical procedures and services. In Missouri, the statewide Missouri Health Connection announced its grand opening and provides services to more than 7,000 patients, linking 62 hospitals and more than 350 clinics. And in Utah, Intermountain Healthcare is collaborating with several IT companies to bring transformational technologies to the patient bedside, such as designing the patient room of the future, a handwashing sensor and 3D printing of medical devices.

On a larger scale, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality released a report that details health IT’s positive impact on the delivery of evidence-based care on the basis of 24 projects. The projects developed and tested various approaches for enhancing clinical decision support, providing clinical information at the point of care and improv­ing care coordination. They also examined the integration of health IT systems into clinical workflows.

Of the projects, several showed a positive impact on process outcomes related to the delivery of evidence-based preventive and chronic care or the use of health IT by clinicians. Others showed a positive impact on intermediate outcomes such as chronic disease control, clinician perceptions of health IT usefulness and clinician satisfaction and some demonstrated improve­ments in health outcomes such as health status and adverse drug events.

How are these advances in technology, interoperability and information exchange impacting your organization? Please share your experience.

Beth Walsh

Clinical Innovation + Technology editor