The focus of the Case Study
The case study is a Hudson Valley-based initiative that is focused on transforming healthcare and supporting meaningful use of technology through ensuring proper implementation of electronic health record (EHR), supporting connections to EHR and PHR vendors in ensuring EHR interoperability and provider adoption, and supporting EHR sharing operations at highest possible standards of privacy, security, and trust-in-identity across providers. The overall objective of the Direct project is to facilitate cheaper, better, and faster exchange of EHR technology across a network of accredited HISPs, thereby enabling improved care, better health, and lower costs.
Data
The Direct Project was constituted of 200 healthcare providers from across 60 private sector companies and organizations in the Hudson Valley of New York. The participants would develop consensus standards for the support of secure exchange of public health data and clinical information.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Outcome Contrasts with the Current Industry Standards
The incorporation of additional functionality for direct messaging such as filtering and integration capabilities into existing EHR technology is a critical strategy that meets the regulations provided by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The inbuilt information exchange mechanisms ensure extraction and reception of limited amount of information from EHR. The information extracted or receivable is only limited to the pertinent positives and negatives. This limited exchange ensures that the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of HIPAA principles of the security of electronic protected health information (ePHI) are upheld. This implies that the project upholds the current provider/end-user roles and responsibilities.
In contrast to other telemedicine technologies such as email and fax, the Direct project’s messaging capabilities are integrated right into the EHR thus it brings little or no changes to clinical workflows. Also, unlike other technologies which require extensive user training, the Direct pilot require little training as providers are already trained in EHR use.
Evaluation of the Application of the practice
These practices are standard system-level initiatives at the heart of any organization that wishes to enhance its efficiency. I will definitely welcome the application of Direct project within my organization.
Results of Implementing the New Practice
Direct exchange will enhance the performance of the service provider, minimze negative patient events, lower the rate of re-hospitalization, eliminate deaths, and increase patient care satisfaction. Enhanced communication facilitates the availability of updated, accurate information on patient care and informed decision-making which in turn will translate to better transitions of care, easy data management, and increased efficiency. Furthermore, incorporation of this technology results in improved standards of managing organizational finances. The staff will be more informed and allocation of resources will be more prudent, thus leading to controlled health care costs.
