Standards and Interoperability

Abstract

Why is there such an urgency to adopt health information technology (IT) interoperability standards? What does this urgency mean for nursing? It has been well documented that our health care system is in crisis. What worked in the past is no longer viable and must be improved. Despite spending over $1.6 trillion on health care as a nation, there are still serious concerns about high costs, avoidable medical errors, administrative inefficiencies, and poor coordination – all of which are closely connected to the failure to incorporate health IT into our health care system, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.1 To address these concerns, numerous efforts have commenced which include setting a goal for the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) recognition of interoperable health IT standards as part of the President’s National Health IT Agenda to lower cost and drive quality improvement, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Through these and other public/private efforts, the importance of advancing quality care and reducing costs through adopting interoperable health IT has been brought to the forefront of the nation’s efforts to improve the health care system.