Hospital adoption of interoperability functions.

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Healthcare Management
• Health Information Exchange

Background:

• Interoperability, the seamless sharing of patient health information, is crucial for healthcare delivery.
• Federal electronic health record (EHR) incentive programs emphasize interoperability.
• Promoting Interoperability Stage 3 (PI3) outlines key interoperability functions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the adoption of PI3 interoperability functionalities by US hospitals.
• To identify factors associated with PI3 adoption.
• To compare interoperability barriers between hospitals with and without PI3 adoption.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional analysis of 2781 US acute-care hospitals using the 2015 AHA IT Supplement.
• Descriptive statistics on PI3 functionality adoption rates.
• Regression analysis to identify predictors of adoption and comparative analysis of barriers.

Main Results:

• Only 16.7% of hospitals adopted all six PI3 core functionalities.
• Over 70% implemented at least four functionalities; 1.8% implemented none.
• Teaching hospitals, system-affiliated hospitals, and RHI hub participants were more likely to adopt; for-profit hospitals were less likely. Barriers included receiving provider engagement.

Conclusions:

• While full PI3 adoption was limited, most hospitals had implemented a majority of functionalities.
• Barriers to seamless interoperability persist, often beyond hospital control.
• Further efforts are needed to overcome external obstacles to achieve true healthcare data exchange.