AHA, FAH urge faster progress on interoperability in new report

Seven leading hospital organizations are putting out a call to arms to advance data sharing and interoperability across the healthcare industry. Data sharing improves care coordination, patient safety, family empowerment, efficiency and cost, the groups wrote in the new report (PDF) released by the American Hospital Association (AHA) and the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH), among others. While health systems have come far with their EHRs in the last decade, those systems are still riddled with barriers to interoperability. “We see interoperability in action all around us. Mobile phones can call each other regardless of make, model, or operating system," said AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack in a statement. "The hospital field has made good headway, but it’s time to complete the job. We are united in calling for a truly interoperable system that allows all providers and patients to benefit from shared health records and data, leading to fully informed care decisions."