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DATA EXCHANGE
NEW TECHNOLOGY PAVES WAY
FOR HIPAA-COMPLIANT DATA EXCHANGE
New printer functionality enables cost-effective, quality care
coordination throughout healthcare ecosystem
By Wayne Parker
As we enter 2017, many would assume that most, if not all, hos- are crucial to creating an efficient continuum of care that is focused
pitals and health systems have adopted secure electronic data trans- on improving outcomes and lowering healthcare costs. It is incum-
mission and that the days of faxing reams of patient documentation bent upon the healthcare IT industry to develop new, lightweight,
are long gone. In fact, there are still great discrepancies in technology low-cost solutions that deliver relevant information at the right time,
maturation between large, well-funded medical centers and small to in the right format and at the point of care to assist healthcare
mid-sized, community-based providers. These digital inequities play providers in making vital medical decisions. Community-based
out all around the country, endangering care coordination and con- providers need interoperability options that don’t require heavy IT
tinuity of care when paper documents are misinterpreted, misfiled infrastructure or knowledge, and don’t cause disruptions to existing
or lost altogether. But the real-world solution is complex. While provider workflows. Every healthcare organization, regardless of size,
large healthcare organizations have benefitted from $30 billion in should have the opportunity to reap the benefits of electronic doc-
incentives to adopt Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), there is ument exchange to strengthen care coordination.
very little left of that pool of dollars for smaller providers to tap.
Simple, easy and secure processing of
Smaller healthcare facilities benefit from stream- patient records
lined records management
But there is good news on the horizon. New multifunction print-
Meanwhile, thousands of smaller, community-based skilled nurs- ers (MFPs) now on the market have been designed with healthcare
ing, long-term care and rehabilitation and behavioral healthcare providers in mind. They can offer not only fulfillment of adminis-
providers have been left behind. The irony is that these providers trative tasks, but also the brokering of secure transmissions of Pro-
28 San Antonio Medicine • February 2017
