EHR Systems to Disease and Syndromic Surveillance

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Table of Contents

Hypothesis
ACOs and Health Information Systems
Successful Achievements
Future Prospects
Conclusion
References

Modern technologies are becoming useful in various sectors, including medical services and public health. Hospitals and facilities can consider all available options from vendors and retailers in an attempt to transform their patients’ experiences and outcomes. Similarly, agencies and departments of health in different regions can acquire or develop complex technological systems to gather disease information, monitor emerging public health trends, and engage in constant surveillance.

Every region embracing the power of such systems in the United States find it easier to respond efficiently to disease outbreaks, support the delivery of high-quality and timely medical services, promote monitoring procedures, and handle emergencies. The studied case study has explained how Erie County in New York has benefited significantly from the use of similar technologies. The discussion uses the presented case study to support the integration of primary care and disease-specific surveillance using health systems. It goes further to describe the role of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and evidence-based recommendations for supporting the implementation and use of health information exchange (HIE).

Hypothesis

My position is that the presented case supports the utilization of an integrated HIE since it is a powerful model for promoting collaboration, sharing of timely information and data, decision-making, and supporting response mechanisms to patients’ needs, thereby revolutionizing the integration of disease syndromic surveillance and primary care. The studied case offers numerous insights and success stories to support this kind of argument. For instance, the identified HEALTheLink system ensures that all relevant organizations in Erie county work together to advocate in every issue related to people’s health outcomes.

The implemented technology guides health professionals and social workers to identify and prevent safety hazards that can affect citizens. This technology has also become a powerful information highway for assisting caregivers and physicians to offer coordinated, timely, and high-quality medical care (HIMSS, 2017). Additionally, the county has managed to investigate and engage in disease surveillance procedures. This is achieved by monitoring various conditions, including hepatitis, tuberculosis, rabies, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and food poisoning. Syndromic surveillance is possible since the system guides practitioners to look up individuals’ health information using presented medical record numbers.

ACOs and Health Information Systems

Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are teams or groups of hospitals, physicians, and medical practitioners who collaborate in an attempt to give coordinated health services to enrollees of the Medicare program. The presented case supports the role or effectiveness of ACOs and how the use of health information systems can deliver additional benefits. These groups remove gatekeepers, thereby ensuring that more beneficiaries have access to high-quality and timely medical services (“Population health management,” 2012). They utilize evidence-based measures and performance initiatives to promote the delivery of efficient and cost-effective care.

With the use of different types of Health Information Systems, ACOs can be in a position to improve their care delivery processes. They do so by transforming the way different physicians can share radiology files or images, data, and medical reports (HIMSS, 2017). Professionals can communicate effectively and use available data to make accurate care delivery predictions. The case of Erie County shows that the implemented technology supports the creation of a quality scorecard that practitioners and physicians can use as a trusted source of information.

Successful Achievements

The organization presented in the selected article has recorded positive results after introducing its HEALTHeLINK system. This is a community-based and privacy-protected technological network that links and empowers healthcare professionals and consumers to share clinical and medical information efficiently. The use of this system has made it possible for many people in the region to benefit from improved health reporting initiatives, advanced data collection and sharing measures, and transformed efficiency (HIMSS, 2017). The partners have been able to collect evidence, monitor emerging diseases, and introduce superior mechanisms for meeting patients’ health needs.

Despite the outlined successes, the region should have expanded its system to ensure that it provided evidence-based insights and information to clinicians in local facilities to promote patient safety. This means that the technology should be able to support patient training procedures, equip practitioners with advanced clinical ideas, and link all institutions to the existing HEALTHeLINK system (“National public health,” n.d.). This initiative is appropriate since it can ensure that all stakeholders are capable of using the current database to make superior clinical decisions and empower the targeted patients.

From the above recommendations, it is agreeable that the organizations involved should have expanded the system to include all clinical and health facilities across the region. They would have also gone further to introduce superior technologies, such as Clinical Decision Support (CDS) and Patient Relationship Management (PRM) systems (Crawford, 2014). Such strategies would have ensured that public health and clinical practices were merged, thereby maximizing the outcomes of individuals in need of medical services.

Future Prospects

The studied case has described how HIEs can link ACOs, public health agencies, and government departments to transform patients’ experiences. The implemented system has supported disease-specific and syndromic surveillance for numerous conditions, thereby making it possible for many people to report positive health outcomes. The best proposal to improve the current situation is to expand the existing HEALTHeLINK system in such a way that it includes local technologies that many health institutions use.

This initiative will ensure that more professionals have access to evidence-based ideas, data, and clinical guidelines that can ensure that the health demands of more people are met (“Meaningful use,” n.d.). There is also a need to involve other stakeholders within the system to achieve better results.

Some of them might include learning institutions, manufacturing firms, government agencies, and the military. In the future, all institutions, agencies, and local clinics will have to connect their systems to the wider network to transform the effectiveness of ACOs, coordinate efforts, report disease outbreaks, share insights, and implement uniform changes that will support the interaction of public health and primary care practices.

Conclusion

The above discussion has supported the use of modern technologies and HIEs to bring ACOs together, link them to available medical resources, and transform the wider public health system. This interaction promotes collaboration, ensures that all involved parties share information, supports decision-making processes, and improves the delivery of high-quality and timely services. The technology also supports syndromic surveillance of communicable conditions and guides physicians to provide high-quality medical services.

References

Crawford, C. (2014). Primary care, public health integration focus of new resource. Web.

HIMSS. (2017). HIE case study: HIE for public health – HEALTHeLINK and Erie County Department of Health. Web.

Meaningful use. (n.d.). Web.

National public health performance standards. (n.d.). Web.

Population health management: Revolutionizing health care service delivery. (2012). Web.

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