Interoperability continues upswing

A report from Surescripts indicates that interoperability continues to improve, with more doctors exchanging more information than ever before.

According to the Surescripts 2022 National Progress Report, more than 2 million care providers exchanged patient clinical and benefit information – an increase of 7.4% over last year -- over 21.7 billion times in 2022, an increase of 6.4%. In addition, 1.23 million prescribers used e-prescribing services in 2022, a 7.9% increase over 2021, to fill 2.34 billion prescriptions, a 10.4% increase over last year.

The Carequality interoperability framework saw more than 1 billion clinical documents exchanged in 2022 via its Record Locator & Exchange service, amounting to 30% of Carequality’s average monthly exchange activity. Clinicians exchanged more than 174 million HIPAA-compliant Clinical Direct messages, and 2.54 billion patient medication histories were delivered.

“While there is no single solution to the challenges facing health care today, we have billions of reasons for hope that come with every exchange of secure patient information,” said Frank Harvey, CEO of Surescripts, in a statement.

As the nation’s leading health information network, Surescripts exchanged much more than electronic prescriptions in 2022, including patient eligibility and formulary data that informed 4.34 billion care events, nearly 500 million prescription benefit checks at the point of prescribing, and 44% more prior authorizations processed electronically compared to 2021. At the same time, the number of prescribers using the Surescripts network increased by nearly 8%, and that growth was largely attributed to new prescriber specialties and roles across evolving care teams—including residents, nurse practitioners, dentists, and physician assistants.

“It’s clear that the interoperability that’s happening across the Surescripts network is having a direct impact on patients’ lives,” said Alan Swenson, executive director of Carequality, in a statement. “Thousands of individual health care organizations across the country are innovating to make life easier and safer for their staff and patients.”