In the healthcare industry, “interoperability” is more than just a technical term for the way electronic health record systems shuffle information back and forth. It’s a concept that can—and should—be applied to the connections between organizations across the care continuum, from primary care and specialty services to inpatient admissions, long-term care, and especially behavioral healthcare.
Historically, many of these disciplines have operated with a certain sense of isolation. Hospitals and specialists treated acute problems and performed surgeries; family doctors dealt with everything else. Communication between them was limited to the tedious faxing of hundreds of pages of records, which may or may not contain pertinent information in an easily accessible way.
Behavioral healthcare existed somewhere off to the side as an option for those who specifically sought it out.
(Source: Health IT Analytics)