Interoperable IT could be just the thing to help healthcare reduce the expensive duplication and potential adverse events associated with fragmented care, according to just-published research from Massachusetts. While this is hardly a new notion, the sheer extent of the fragmentation could add new urgency to the push toward a connected health system.

In a study appearing in the December issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers from Children's Hospital Boston found that of the 3.6 million adults receiving acute care in Massachusetts over a five-year period, 31 percent of patients visited more than one hospital and accounted for 56.5 percent of hospitalizations in the state. About 1 percent, or nearly 44,000 patients, went to five or more hospitals and were responsible for approximately one in 10 acute care visits during the study period.

"The number of sites that some patients went to for acute care astonished us," Dr. Kenneth Mandl, one of the authors, says, Healthcare IT News reports. "For the first time we showed just how common it is to go across sites of care, and now understanding this, we can look at the issue of information fragmentation and demonstrate the critical value of making vital health information accessible across settings."

The researchers looked at acute care because clinicians generally have to track down patient information quickly in order to make proper decisions. "The acuity of patients presenting leaves little time for providers to track down relevant clinical information; this is a scenario where an integrated source of health information could be of great value," lead author Dr. Fabienne Bourgeois explains. "[W]e know that treating patients with incomplete information can expose patients to medical errors, adverse events, duplicative tests and higher costs."

They were not able to link fragmentation to specific consequences, but draw their conclusions based on the scope and length of the study period, 2002 to 2007.

"What we found is clearly just the tip of the iceberg and shows us that the problem is probably bigger than we thought," Mandl adds. "It provides a great case for justifying the billions of dollars that are being invested in health IT and influencing how IT systems, personally controlled health records, and regional health information exchanges are built. There are clearly a great number of concrete benefits to solving the problem--improved continuity, safety, quality of care and cost."

For further details:
- have a look at this Healthcare IT News story
- see this Becker's Hospital Review news brief
- read the study abstract from the Archives of Internal Medicine
- here's a press release from Children's Hospital Boston

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