How might standards impact the documentation processes of your setting?

Health Data Standards

What are health data standards and how do they relate to your role as an informaticist? Health data standards are the agreed upon representations of nursing data. From the coding of medical processes to documentation formats and terminology definitions, health data standards help to align nursing language. Being knowledgeable in health data standards is imperative to the data aggregation and informatics system selection process. It is the informaticist’s responsibility to not only understand the nursing domains of each standard, but also to be educated on the standards development organizations (SDO) that create, maintain, and approve these standards.

In this Discussion, you explore one health data standard of your choosing. For the purposes of this Discussion, do not focus on the standardization of nursing terminologies, as you will examine those in next week’s Discussion.

To prepare:

·         Review the health data standards presented in this week’s Learning Resources.

·         How does each provide a framework to align the terminologies and data sets used in health care settings?

·         Reflect upon your current health care setting.

·         Does your setting currently use any of the standards outlined by a specific organization? Why?

·         How might standards impact the documentation processes of your setting? Furthermore, which standards might most apply to you in your work as a nurse?

Note: If you are not currently working in a health care setting, select a setting with which you are familiar for this Discussion.

References

·         Bokur, D. (2012). To ‘EACH’ its own incentive payment: New CCHIT program rewards groups with EHR systems. MGMA Connexion, 12(2), 33–34.

This article explores the EHR Certification Alternative for Health Care Providers (EACH) program that was designed to ensure that EHRs meet the compliances of the HITECH Act. It also discusses the benefits of EACH and how its use can result in a safer health care environment and reward its users along the way.

·         Heymans, S., McKennirey, M., & Phillips, J. (2011). Semantic validation of the use of SNOMED CT in HL7 clinical documents. Journal of Biomedical Semantics, 2(Suppl. 3), 2
–17.

The authors of this article examine the use of SNOMED CT in clinical documents. Prior to its implementation, health care professionals had to ensure the validity of HL7 documents manually. By the end of the study, the authors concluded that the use of SNOMED CT, along with the technologies of OWL, removes the need for health care employees to verify the documents manually.

·         Kim, W., Lim, S., Ahn, J., Nah, J., & Kim, N. (2010). Integration of IEEE 1451 and HL7 exchanging information for patients’ sensor data. Journal of Medical Systems, 34(6), 1033–1041.

This article summarizes some of the shortcomings of the HL7 standard. In addition, the authors propose uniting HL7 with IEEE 1451 in order to ensure better organization and administration in the medical informatics field. Public Health Data Standards Consortium. (2012). Health information technology standards. Retrieved from http://www.phdsc.org/standards/health-information/D_Standards.asp

Attachments:

integration_of_ieee_1451_and_hl7_exchanging_information_contentserver.pdf

new_cchit_program_rewards_groups_with_ehr_systems.pdf

semantic_validation_of_the_use_of_snomed.pdf

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