Every computer program which gives you access to information is, at its heart, the same thing; a link to a storage device filled with massive amounts of data, which has to be presented in a way that makes sense. Sometimes, the main challenge comes from filling that database. If someone has already put together the information you need, how do you get it moved to where you can use it? One option is to take a printout from another organization and manually enter it into your system, but this takes time. A better choice is to have your computer system copy the information you need directly from the other organization’s system, but first you have to come to an agreement on how your systems will communicate. If you need information from a third, fourth, or fifth system, do you have to start from scratch each time?

Various organizations have been working for years to put together standard ways of getting data from one system to another. One of the standards for the healthcare industry is provided by non-profit organization Health Level 7, or HL7. By sending information in an HL7 file format, medical information can be transmitted over secure networks in real-time, allowing you to get updates as quickly as your software can handle.

Because the HL7 format is an approved standard, many software companies have already created the tools to take data from one system, put it into the HL7 format, send it to another system, and read the formatted file. That means that new development can be limited to deciding what information needs to be sent, and how to use the information that’s received. Furthermore, once you’ve set up the interface once, you should be able to interface with another system using the HL7 format without a great deal of additional development.

Outreach Services’ Optima system receives patient information for local hospitals through an HL7 interface. As the information is sent from the hospital records to our database, we have immediate access to updated details of a patient’s hospital visit. Since the data doesn’t have to be retyped, transcription errors such as misspelled names or transposed numbers in social security numbers can be avoided. This simplifies reconciliation, since the information provided to the Optima user is exactly what was entered at the hospital. Finally, the software compares incoming records to the existing patient information to ensure that no duplicate information is added. This all adds up to greater efficiency for Optima users.

For more information on the HL7 standard, see the Health Level 7 webpage at www.hl7.org.