How is HL7 Used in Healthcare?

Many people have been asking questions about HL7 in the healthcare industry.

21:04 27 April 2021

It is a set of international standards which guide the health information transfers between the healthcare providers and relevant parties. The healthcare applications which are compliant with the HL7 guidelines use the particular standard messaging protocol in order to retain the context of the information to avoid misinterpretation and misunderstandings.

 

There are plenty of facilities that use the health information systems to deliver the healthcare services such as labs, clinics, hospitals, specialist clinics, dispensaries, over-the-counters, and so on. Most of these healthcare providers share the relevant patient information between the different healthcare applications. Without the HL7 standards, these apps won’t be able to communicate with each other. In turn, information transfers won’t be possible.

 

Healthcare software creators will make use of the messaging standards set by HL7 to make the information ready to share out of the particular systems to the other parties. So, when the data is reached to the other parties, it will be recognizable. One of the top vendors, GLORIUM will build the software solution to retrieve the data from different sources using the international standards so that the information can be used to provide the appropriate healthcare services for particular patients.

 

For example, there is one party that handles the patient registration. Meanwhile, the other party might handle the treatments of the patients. These different systems have different sources of information. The HL7 features will help the hospitals and the other entity to keep the patients’ information in sync. There won’t be overlapping health information like the patient names, diagnoses, address, contact information, medical records, and so on. The healthcare facilities within a country, city, or town will make use of the HL7 standards to conduct the information exchange in the corridors of both in-patient and out-patient.

 

The key to the best care service is to know the information about the patient so that the specialists will be able to find the best treatments for their patients. It is now possible that the practitioners know what happened to the patients when they get hospitalized due to illness or other health conditions. The hospital technologies will need to understand the data from other sources to deliver great care for their patients. Now it is highly possible with the help of the HL7 set of international messaging standards.

 

All of the involved parties in the healthcare industry should use the set of international standards like HL7 in order to treat the patients well. The facilities like hospitals, labs, and others can provide accurate medical information to the other healthcare providers who need it to help their patients. The transparency of information can be important for any healthcare premises. For instance, it could be just a routine check-up visit or office visits between the specialist and primary practitioners. Or perhaps, it can be useful for some urgent situations where the patients need to be transferred to other hospitals with more advanced technology and facilities. There will be a lot of different scenarios where the HL7 is obliged by HIE to make sure that the information will be available when it is needed.

 

The HL7 compliant practices will also help patients in many ways when they are using services from the official facilities. For example, the patients who are going to a rehab facility will need the lab work done at the local clinic. After the checks are made, the HL7 protocols make it possible to transfer the information immediately to the doctor. From there, the doctor can send the results to the patients for review. This rehab facility test is just one of abundant examples of the good interoperability procured because of this international set of standards.

 

The pros of HL7

 

So what is HL7 and what are its advantages? Data sharing can be challenging because software systems used in healthcare are different. It can be hard to share information from different sources to particular entities without any set of standards. The features of HL7 can eliminate these difficulties. The members of HL7 will be on the same page in terms of exchanging information between the healthcare providers and patients. Here are the obvious benefits that can be attained for being compliant with those international guidelines.

 

Improve the data exchange 

 

With the accurate information that transfers between one party to another, the healthcare workflow will be much better than before. In turn, the data exchange activities will be more cost and time-effective. 

 

Seamless interactions between systems and entities 

 

The healthcare providers are using different software for delivering the services. This international set of standards will help them to communicate with each other without problems.

 

Eliminate duplicate data process

 

Duplicate data entry is one of the most common problems happening in healthcare providers. The main cause of this issue is the lack of integration. One can have a great EHR platform, but sending the information to other software might come with challenges. The implementation of the HL7 will help all of these parties to eliminate duplicate data entry. Therefore, it is crucial to work with top-rated software developers like GLORIUM to create software that is easy to access and brings the best features that are compliant with these standards. The apps should come with high-quality integration features to fetch the data from EHR or send the data to the software.

 

Avoid misunderstanding

 

The software must comprehend the data values and recognize them correctly so that the health facilities can provide the best services for their patients. The misinterpretation can really jeopardize the treatment procedure and could be threatening the life of the patients. For instance, we have known the word “NA” in many health facilities. But there’s an ambiguity with this word. NA could be defined as “Not Applicable”, “Not Available”, or “No Allergies. It is important to avoid such kinds of misunderstandings.

 

It is important to work with the right developer like GLORIUM to enable the health facilities to document the right HL7 interfaces. To know more about the interface of HL7, consider reaching the GLORIUM representative now.