Interoperability has the potential to improve transitions of care between acute-care and post-acute care facilities; such as skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and home health agencies (HHAs). Poor communication and coordination during these transitions may lead to adverse events including readmissions and medication errors. Federal policies aim to advance interoperability in post-acute care settings. The Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act (IMPACT Act) of 2014, for example, requires assessment data to be standardized and interoperable to allow for the exchange of data among post-acute care providers and other providers. This brief describes the state of health IT use among HHAs and SNFs in 2017. Specifically, it presents key measures on electronic health record (EHR) adoption and interoperability from nationally representative surveys of SNFs and HHAs. The data brief also describes variation in interoperability by method of electronic exchange and examines the extent to which these facilities have information electronically available at the point of care. Finally, this data brief reports on the use of mobile and telehealth technologies among HHAs.
Copyright:
The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. (More information)