By Jon Elwell, CEO, Kno2 – (December 12, 2016) – As we approach 2017, many would assume that most, if not all, hospitals and health systems have adopted secure electronic data transmission – and that the days of faxing reams of patient documentation are long gone. In fact, there are still great discrepancies in technology maturation between large, well-funded medical centers and small to mid-sized, community-based providers. These digital inequities play out all around the country, endangering care coordination and continuity of care when paper documents are misinterpreted, misfiled or lost altogether. But the real-world solution is complex. While large healthcare organizations have benefitted from $30 billion in incentives to adopt Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), there is very little left of that pool of dollars for smaller providers to tap.
Smaller Healthcare Facilities Benefit from Streamlined Records Management
Meanwhile, thousands of smaller, community-based skilled nursing, long-term care, and rehabilitation and behavioral healthcare providers have been left behind. The irony is that these providers are crucial to creating an efficient continuum of care that is focused on improving outcomes and lowering healthcare costs. It is incumbent upon the healthcare IT industry to develop new, lightweight, low-cost solutions that deliver relevant information at the right time, in the right format and at the point of care to assist healthcare providers in making vital medical decisions. Community-based providers need interoperability options that don’t require heavy IT infrastructure or knowledge, and don’t cause disruptions to existing provider workflows. Every healthcare organization, regardless of size, should have the opportunity to reap the benefits of electronic document exchange to strengthen care coordination.
Simple, Easy and Secure Processing of Patient Records
That’s why Xerox® announced the launch of the Xerox® Healthcare Multifunction Printer (MFP) Solution. The Healthcare MFP, connected by Kno2™, was designed especially with healthcare providers in mind, offering not only the fulfillment of administrative tasks, but also the brokering of secure transmissions of Protected Health Information (PHI).
Using the same outbound workflow—walking up to the Healthcare MFP—providers can perform any of the five functions: print, scan, copy, fax and the new ability to electronically “share” patient information with another provider via secure data transmission. Through its integration with Kno2 interoperability services, the Healthcare MFP enables providers to instantly access Kno2’s HIPAA-compliant data exchange network, regardless of their level of adoption of digital exchange and EMRs. Kno2’s national directory supplies access to over one million providers via the largest and most secure health information networks in the nation. Offering a broad range of exchange methods, Kno2’s network enables delivery of Direct messaging via Surescripts, an accredited, trusted framework through DirectTrust, and document query via Carequality. To ensure the ultimate in security, Equifax® services are also used for identity verification.
Furthermore, providers using the Healthcare MFP gain the ability to receive digital patient documentation through an included subscription to Kno2’s desktop solution. Kno2’s cloud-based technology enables providers to exchange patient information in a variety of digital transmission modalities that best meet a given provider’s needs –from cloud fax to Direct messaging and more. This ability to digitally send patient information from the MFP device, and electronically send and receive data via Kno2’s desktop solution, supplies healthcare organizations with the means to optimize care coordination. The focus on care transitions continues to increase in significance as community hospitals, specialists, referring providers and larger healthcare organizations collaborate to deliver high-quality care to populations in a geographically agnostic, technologically egalitarian manner.
At approximately the same price as the four-function printer model, this new MFP offers scalable, secure digital transmission capabilities that will support healthcare organizations as they move towards electronic patient document exchange today, and will ease the transition to EMRs in the future.
That an MFP should be leading the interoperability charge is somewhat ironic, because for years, paper-based systems like these contributed to delayed adoption of digital data exchange. Now it is delivering exactly what the healthcare industry has been asking for: a quick, easy and affordable way to drive better care coordination, workflow efficiencies and patient outcomes – across the care continuum – while meeting regulatory-driven demands for interoperable document exchange.
