Top three considerations when selecting an integration engine

By MacKenzie Gonnelly

Whether your healthcare organization is migrating data to a new EHR, attempting to meet interconnectivity goals, or integrating disparate systems during M&A, it is important to consider upgrading your integration engine to meet expanding interoperability demands.

As you develop your data exchange roadmap, before making the switch, consider prioritizing these three benefits when selecting a new integration solution.

1. Improves Data Accessibility
   When selecting an integration engine, it is essential to prioritize a user-friendly system. This solution should feature intuitive functionality (i.e. drag-and-drop) and configuration capabilities, with options for additional code customization. With easy-to-use features, an integration engine can provide end users with consistent, convenient access to quality data.
   
   An integration engine should also be vendor neutral, easily sharing and managing data, regardless of a healthcare facility’s EHR system or coordinating applications. An integration engine must support a multitude of data formats and web services while maintaining compatibility with industry standards. By selecting a robust integration engine, healthcare organizations can maintain data accessibility and integrity throughout any system upgrade or transition.
   
   
2. Better care decision making & patient care
   A comprehensive integration engine plays a critical role in delivering high-quality patient care. In selecting a solution, look for an engine that provides a full portrait of a patient’s care history, offering context and insights by levering a multitude of relevant, up-to-date data sources. By facilitating a unified view of patient data, an effective integration engine improves clinical decision-making and coordinated care, while also enhancing workflow efficiency. This will ultimately improve patient care delivery across your growing health system.
   
   
3. Focuses on security, reliability, and availability
   Healthcare organizations must invest in an integration engine that provides secure and reliable data exchange. Especially given the sensitivity of healthcare data, an integration solution should be equipped with a multitude of safety features. Consider selecting a solution with encryption or authentication tools, or an account lockout threshold. These features will greatly reduce the risk of unauthorized data access or theft of patient information.
   
   Finally, healthcare organizations should select integration engines with high uptime to guarantee that the product is stable and won’t crash often. Integration engines should be able to meet high uptime expectations from buyers and include the ability to run without internet connection. Moreover, expect an integration engine vendor to provide options for 24/7 support, proactively address system issues, and plan for regular system updates — ensuring your organization receives the greatest value from its purchase.
   
   

Without effective integration tools, keeping up with advancing interoperability demands can be a major challenge. By focusing on these three components during integration engine selection, your healthcare organization can deliver seamless data exchange, no matter how expectations evolve.

As a member of the Med Tech Solutions (MTS) family of brands, Stoltenberg is thrilled to share the ONC-certified integration engine CareBridge with hospitals and health systems across our health IT community. To learn more about the CareBridge EHR interoperability tool, contact us today.