HL7 (Health Level Seven) standards are widely used in healthcare to facilitate the exchange of electronic health information between different systems, such as electronic health records (EHRs), laboratory systems, radiology information systems, and other healthcare information technology (IT) systems. We applaud their mission to “empower global health data interoperability” and their vision to realize “a world in which everyone can securely access and use the right health data when and where they need it.”⁽¹⁾

How are HL7 and similar standards used today?

The standards define the structure, content, and format of the data exchanged between these systems, ensuring that information is accurately and securely transmitted and received. This enables healthcare providers to access complete and up-to-date patient information, which improves patient care and outcomes. In addition, HL7 standards are used to support clinical decision making, streamline administrative processes, and improve public health surveillance. HL7 standards are an essential part of modern healthcare and continue to play a critical role in the delivery of high-quality patient care. 

Healthcare technology vendors use healthcare messaging standards to make it possible to send information out of their systems to other authorized destinations in ways that the data can be identifiable and understood. Vendors also build their software technology to consume data from other sources using these standards so that the information can be stored and/or displayed as needed for patient care. For instance, suppose a hospital has a patient registration and billing system used to manage all the financial accounts for their patients, as well as a clinical information system used to manage clinical activities and treatment for patients seen in their facilities. By using properly implemented HL7 interfaces, these two different systems can keep the patient names, address, and important demographic information in sync.

Hospitals and medical practices within a city or region leverage HL7 standards to facilitate the exchange of healthcare information between the in-patient and out-patient environments. Today, it is not uncommon for a patient’s primary care physician to be able to see what happened to that patient when they were admitted to the hospital after an accident or illness. The flow of information and the ability for the hospital’s technology and the medical practice’s technology to understand data from each other is made possible by HL7 and other similar healthcare messaging standards.

Health information exchange (HIE) organizations often help facilitate the health data exchange across many healthcare facilities and patients. Using standards like HL7, the HIE will work with the hospitals, medical clinics, pharmacies, laboratories, and specialized treatment centers to provide important medical information to healthcare providers who need it to treat a patient. This could be routine office visits between a primary care physicians and a specialist. It could be for urgent, just-in-time situations involving EMS as they care for a patient and even transport them to the nearest hospital. Using HL7, HIE’s can help make sure the data is available when and where it is needed.

Patients also benefit from the standards and data fluidity made possible through HL7 interoperability. Suppose a patient was instructed by their doctor to get some lab work done at the local hospital. After the draws were completed and the specimens processed, HL7 makes it possible for those results to be electronically transmitted directly to the doctor. The doctor can then make the results electronically available to the patient for their review. This lab use case is just one example of many types of information in a patient’s medical chart that are now available to patients because of interoperability.

How do all of these organizations keep up with the demands of healthcare interoperability?

For many of the organizations mentioned above, their primary goal is to provide or enable quality patient care. To do that, they must have the knowledge, skills and HL7 tools to deploy healthcare interoperability standards within their systems. And, that can be tricky given the inherent complexity of clinical data and the variations in how healthcare vendors implement the standards.

For example, the HL7 standard specifies many different types of HL7 messages. A few commonly implemented message types are:

• ADT – contains patient demographic data and data specific to a healthcare encounter or event, such as an inpatient admission, transfer, discharge or ambulatory patient registration.

• ORU – contains data relevant to medical results, such as a lab result

• ORM – contains data relevant to medical orders, such as a lab or medication order

• SIU – contains patient appointment details

• OBX – is a segment within a message type (like ORU or ADT) that contains information about a clinical observation.

Healthcare technology vendors, HIEs, and hospital organizations look to HL7.org, HL7 integration engines and interoperability experts like Zen Healthcare IT to help them implement the standards in the right way. We work collectively with the technology resources, HL7 software tools, the security and privacy resources, and healthcare operational staff to make sure the data is flowing to the right places at the right time for the right patient.

As interoperability capabilities mature, new ways of transmitting and consuming data become possible. Groups like HL7 are always working with the members to ensure the standards evolve with the technology. A perfect example of one of the latest evolutions in standards has been introduced by HL7 and it is called FHIR – Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR).

You can learn more about FHIR from the HL7 FHIR resource page.

Need help with your HL7 implementations

At Zen Healthcare IT, we work with our clients to provide the deep technical expertise needed to interpret and connect healthcare data. We combine our technical acumen with strategy and project management acumen that ensures all healthcare data integration projects get done right the first time. At the end of the day, the ability to provide quality patient care is dependent on all of us working together to get the right patient information in the hands of the right clinical staff. This effort can quite literally save lives.

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References:

(1) About HL7; http://www.hl7.org/about/index.cfm?ref=common