What the Future Holds for Healthcare IT: Feds Lay Out Their Focus

What’s healthcare IT going to look like over the course of the next several years? Well, short of a crystal ball, a new plan compiled by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology – in collaboration with more than 35 other agencies – is the best way to find out.

The plan, dubbed the “Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2015-2020,” presents a detailed series of goals the Feds will look to push over the next five years. It also lays out a number of strategies designed to help actualize those goals.

The over-arching mission in all this is to “Improve health, healthcare, and reduce costs through the use of information and technology,” according to the plan. That’s something over-worked and cash-strapped healthcare IT teams everywhere can definitely throw their weight behind.

In terms of the actual nuts and bolts of the plan, each of its five goals fit into one of three high-level categories. Those categories are: Collect, Share, and Use. The individual breakdown of the plan looks like this:   

  • COLLECT
    Goal 1: Expand Adoption of Health IT
  • SHARE
    Goal 2: Advance Secure and Interoperable Health Information
  • USE
    Goal 3: Strengthen Health Care Delivery
    Goal 4: Advance the Health and Well-Being of Individuals and Communities
    Goal 5: Advance Research, Scientific Knowledge, and Innovation

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology will accept formal comments from the public on this plan through February 2015. Once that deadline has passed, it will take the feedback it received and make any adjustments to the plan it feels may be necessary. The final version of the plan will then be released in 2015.

Even though these strategies were built with the federal level in mind, there’s significance in them for individual providers and caregivers. Knowing what goals and markers the government sees the most value in during the coming years can help providers shape their own IT improvement effort in a cost-effective and efficient manner.

Over the next several blog posts, we’ll dissect each of those goals and the ways Arraya Solutions can help your organization feed into this larger government effort – and improve the quality and efficiency of the service you provide in the process.   

Until then, visit www.ArrayaSolutions.com or reach out to your Account Executive to learn more about all of the ways Arraya can make a difference at your organization.

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