PAC providers want greater interoperability from hospital to post-acute care setting
Sharing patient information electronically from a hospital to post-acute care is not widespread, providers told CMS.
From left: Dave Hill of MITRE, Lorraine Wickiser of CMS and Pooja Babbrah of Point of Care, address post-acute care specialists during HIMSS23.
Photo: Susan Morse/HFN
CHICAGO – Interoperability in the post-acute care setting is a challenge, a group of PAC leaders told the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Thursday during a HIMSS23 listening session on long-term and post-acute care.
Sharing patient information from a hospital to a post-acute setting is not being done electronically in many cases, they said. The technology is there for systems to talk to each other, but implementation is not widespread due to cultural and technical reasons and cost, said Susan Adams of LifeCare Services.
Some EHR systems charge and a phone call is free, she said. While information is passed on in other ways, it would be great to get more in-depth patient assessments from the hospital to understand the individual's health level and goals.
"Systems aren't talking to each other," Adams said.
A patient assessment is in the referral, said Cumulus CEO John Byer. It may include information such as needed nutrition assistance, but when home care comes in and does an in-depth assessment, more is found that never made it into that referral, he said.
There is no statutory authority to mandate interoperability, but a Post-Acute Care Interoperability Project (PACIO) is a collaborative effort to advance interoperable health data exchange between PAC and other providers and patients.
About half of patients discharged from a hospital are discharged to post-acute care, according to Lorraine Wickiser, a nurse consultant for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. This includes hospices, home health, skilled nursing facilities, rehabs and long-term hospitals.
From raised hands in the packed room, no one is still using faxes, and a few are using paper and phone calls to transfer patient information.
People are using fax less than they were 10 years ago, but interoperability isn't where the Office of the National Coordinator would like to see it, according to Robert Anthony, director of Certification and Testing at the ONC for Health Information Technology.
Twitter: @SusanJMorse
Email the writer: SMorse@himss.org
