Healthcare leaders urge clear, mandatory standards

Interoperability requires mandatory and clearly executable standards and a delay in Meaningful Use to allow providers to get the processes right, according to a panel of healthcare leaders at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ 2013 eHealth Summit.

“We don’t have a lot of time to do a bunch of pilot programs,” said Russell Branzell, president and CEO, College of Healthcare Information Management Executives. He argued that semi-optional standards will delay interoperability between health information exchanges (HIE)—which he said already show too much variation.  

Although he feels Meaningful Use is positioning the industry in the right direction, lack of mandatory standards is bogging the system down. Branzell gave the example of varied approaches to something as simple as a patient’s birthdate. “The level of exponential complexity that the average organization and CIO is trying to manage during this time of reform transition is truly impossible.”

The scale of healthcare reform “has no parallel in any other industry,” said John Glaser, PhD, CEO, Health Services, Siemens Healthcare. “We need to be realistic how long this will take.”

Glaser said while urgency is important, time is needed for management maturity to improve and for providers to learn how to optimize data use in their care management strategies.

Also, he cited the need to harmonize quality measures. “There are hundreds of ways to report on diabetes, instead of one way. “

Indranil Ganguly, vice president and CIO, CentraState Medical Center in Freehold Township, N.J., also urged the need to “let Meaningful Use get played out.”

Ganguly commented on the daunting task of matching up data of one provider to another, noting "massive" mapping challenges that consume human and financial resources at a time they are needed more than ever.

“Providers are spinning their wheels trying to solve inconsistent standards through mapping and it is taking an inordinate amount of time and money—which doesn’t exist in our industry,” Ganguly said. “The lack of standards is causing us tremendous waste in terms of getting to true value proposition.”

Ryan Bosch, MD, CMIO, Inova Health System, said clear, basic standards form the basis of trust between systems. He equated it to a reluctance to consume an unlabeled container of clear liquid, as opposed to a labeled, tightly-sealed bottle of water.

“We have to mandate standards. Although what we receive is well intended, we don’t know if we can trust it,” he said.

Bosch also said he thought Meaningful Use was a positive thing, but said a few criteria are too complex and he thinks the government should focus on providers perfecting basic functions as opposed to a menu of options. “I’m hedging bets with my development team because I can’t put all my eggs in one of those baskets."

Consensus on something like a single allergy list, he said, would save money and time. Mandatory standards “will catalyze some of our juvenile growth.”