An Interoperability Framework Across Legacy EMR Systems

The 21st Century Cures Act (H.R.34 – 114th Congress, 2016) specifies that patients and authorized providers must be able to receive copies of their medical records with standard medical history details upon request. While the data archival system, DRIS (Data Retention Interoperability Solution), has comprehensive patient summary reports centralizing over 100 legacy electronic health records (EHR) with broad data elements, it is not 100% compliant with the upcoming 21st Century Cures Act’s interoperability standards. As a result, patients and providers are not receiving copies of their medical records with all of the required medical history and fields in this new standard. Therefore, this project created an interoperability framework for archived electronic health record system (EHR) data that meets the interoperability compliance standards set by the Office of the National Coordinator United States Core Data for Interoperability Version 3 and applied it to DRIS. The framework included the creation and adoption of a data governance framework, updated policies and procedures, and recommended changes required to the existing data schema, user interface, and patient summary report to ensure the patient’s full medical record is compliant and reported as expected.