In healthcare, information is a crucial fundamental that guides the enhancement of care and system pragmatic thickness. In healthcare, data integration and interoperability are core to facilities for their efficient operations to ensure healthcare providers provide optimal outcomes.
Since this information is stored in different internal and external sources, it is essential to consolidate this data for better healthcare organization. This is why healthcare integration systems are useful, since they make stakeholders such as patients, providers, and administrators more efficient.
Understand Healthcare Integration Services
An integrated health care delivery system is a system where there is a seamless flow of services and care provided through a network of safe communication among caregivers. Integration enhances relationships between departments through effective coordination on patient care and operation since it covers more than one facility.
This system is specifically significant since most types of healthcare IT systems, like lab, electronic health records, pharmacy, appointment calendar, billing, and staff management systems, often run on different platforms and even different programming languages. That is why it is critical to use ordinary data-exchange formats like Health Level 7 (HL7) and Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR).
What are HL7 & FHIR?
HL7 is an international standard used in the sharing, integrating, and exchanging of, as well as in the retrieval of, e-health information. It enables the interaction of different healthcare systems; it employs a seven-layer model for data transfer. HL7 allows clinical data to be exchanged between different healthcare IT systems with the applications including clinical and administrative purposes.
The HL7 FHIR is a new generation standard for transferring healthcare information. In one way, it supports data interoperability between various healthcare systems through integration with RESTful APIs and allows both structured and unstructured data. HHS guarantees fast access to the required data by the healthcare providers irrespective of its location in FHIR.
They are both critical to today’s healthcare operations since they facilitate effective integration and foster enhanced care, quality, patient satisfaction, and cost decrease.
Top Leading Healthcare Systems
There are some of the healthcare systems in the United States that have demonstrated the efficiency of the integrated delivery networks. These systems provide all sorts of services and are essential in rendering optimal quality care. Below are the top healthcare integration systems:
HCA Healthcare: HCA Healthcare has more than 200 healthcare facilities and partners with over 40 thousand physicians. Having been recognized due to its quality patient care and politically steady approach towards innovation, HCA Healthcare makes over $50 billion yearly.
Universal Health Services (UHS): UHS runs 179 hospitals and is characterized by affordable care and good quality of services. It also occupies the second place among the largest healthcare systems in the United States.
Veterans’ Health Administration (VHA): VHA has served the US military veterans for more than seventy-five years, and it is in charge of more than 164 hospitals and about 1000 clinics. As a military and Virginia-based organization, VHA has an annual budget of about $85 billion, which guarantees free health to military veterans.
Ascension Health: Ascension Health ranks as the second-largest private healthcare system, with over 130 hospitals and a workforce of 150,000 employees. Some of their services are free mental and emotional wellness counseling, and they are operational in 20 states.
CommonSpirit Health: CommonSpirit Health is one of the biggest non-profit hospital chains in the USA. It controls over 160 hospitals and more than 700 care points. The organizational goal is to promote healthier communities and more specifically target specific populations.
Community Health Systems: Community Health Systems is the largest chain of general hospitals in the United States, having 83+ acute care centers. Identified areas of interest include the integration of artificial intelligence in remote patient monitoring and in the case of chronic conditions.
Trinity Health: They are located in 25 states of the USA and offer various services such as rural health clinics, urgent care, and specialty care. Trinity Health has a network of 26,000 clinicians, and its contribution to local communities is also massive; in benefits programs alone, it repays more than $1 billion yearly.
Select Medical Corporation: Select Medical Corporation primarily focuses on critical illness recovery hospitals and outpatient rehabilitation clinics with over 100 established hospitals in 28 states of America.
Tenet Healthcare: Tenet Healthcare operates sixty-five hospitals and five hundred health facilities. It is one of the largest and oldest healthcare systems in the United States, offering services like ambulatory care and surgical hospitals.
Scion Health: A primary care provider, Scion Health provides services at 79 facilities spread across 25 states in the country. It is known for offering excellent services in acute and post-acute care and its strong focus on patient satisfaction.
Healthcare Integration Engines
Healthcare integration engines are those systems that enable the exchange and interoperability of clinical information among the health care IT systems. These can facilitate integration across multiple systems, which is important in the modern world of healthcare. They foster the smooth integration and deployment of new technologies in the flow of service to patients to produce better results.
Integration engines are particularly useful in the following cases:
- Migrating legacy EHR systems
- Timely introduction of new technologies
- Interacting with web APIs and HL7/FHIR
- Responsive monitoring and control of functions of healthcare organizations
Top Ten Healthcare Integration Engines
QVERA Interface Engine: QVERA is a highly recommended HL7 integration engine that is simple and fast to use. This helps to provide security to patients’ data as it is only unlocked when required. The basic version of QVERA is free to use, which means that most healthcare organizations can afford it.
Bridge Connector: For more about Bridge Connector, it is a versatile integration platform that is open to different healthcare communication standards. It has a rating of 5.0 out of 5 stars, which makes it quite valuable for digital health organizations for affordable and recurrent integrative solutions.
Braided.io: Braided.io has many facilities, including its fast integration and good digital feel to it. This integration engine has a high approval rating of 5.0 and can support excellent automation of healthcare workflow.
NexHealth: Related to one of the types, NexHealth is an EHR-integrated cloud solution for practices that features video visits, appointment management, and patients’ communication tools. It has a 4.8/5 rating and comes with a dependable service that has no contracts.
Definite Healthcare: Definite Healthcare aims at transforming business data into commercial insights in the healthcare industry. It includes solutions for healthcare organizations, medical devices, biopharmaceutical companies, or IT specialists.
AthenaHealth: A provider of cloud-based EHR, revenue cycle billing, and population health management services, AthenaHealth aids in the unification of care coordination. It operates with other market leaders such as Redox, Epic, and Qvera.
Redox: Redox is an integration platform designed for the safe transfer of healthcare information. It engages with healthcare solutions and products to link multiple platforms to facilitate patient interactions and optimize the delivery of care.
CERNER CareAware: CareAware is a vendor-neutral, EHR-agnostic integration engine for the creation of connectivity across healthcare IT systems. As it erases data silos, CareAware can be a competitive option to other platforms like CorePoint and Iguana.
Epic Systems: Epic Systems provides software used by the healthcare service providers in the management of the services they offer. MyChart from Epic improves patient experience and provides more control over one’s health.
NextGen Healthcare: As a renowned company that always seeks to provide unique solutions, NextGen Healthcare focuses on customer sales-force solutions. It has a market share of 4.68%, and it operates in the same market segment as other integration engines such as AthenaHealth.
Conclusion
Such need for healthcare integration engines is a result of the continuous call for the industry to go digital. No matter whether it is a migration of legacy systems or the implementation of new technologies, determining the right healthcare integration engine contributes significantly to optimizing data exchange, increasing efficiency of work processes, and thereby offering higher levels of patient care.
These engines assist in enhancing patient results, effective care provision, and affordable work through integrating different health care platforms. If you are seeking for integration in your healthcare environment, consulting with professional companies will provide your organization with the best solution to integration and SOA.
