Imagine you have a patient complaining of headaches. You examine the patient; nothing seems out of the norm, so you instruct them to go home, take some ibuprofen, and rest.

You later learn that the patient had seen a specialist a week before their visit. Since you didn’t have access to the specialist’s lab results, you couldn’t make a well-informed diagnosis, preventing the patient from receiving treatment sooner.

This scenario highlights the danger of data silos. When patient data is disconnected—both within internal provider systems and between providers—it’s difficult to make accurate, informed decisions about patient care. This guide will cover ways to break down healthcare data silos so you can transform data into actionable insights.

1. Leverage health information exchange (HIE) systems.

Start eliminating healthcare data silos by leveraging the right technology. Health information exchange (HIE) systems enable data sharing across healthcare organizations and systems. That way, hospitals, clinics, physicians, labs, and pharmacies can securely exchange patients’ relevant zero- and first-party data, such as:

• Demographics like gender, race, and date of birth
• Contact information like name, address, and phone number
• Clinical data, including current and past diagnoses, prescribed medications, lab results, immunizations, and allergies
• Radiology and imaging reports from tests like X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, and ultrasounds
• Clinical notes from patient interactions
• Emergency department and hospital visit data, including reasons for visits, provided treatment, discharge summaries, and admission and discharge dates
• Surgical and procedure data, including procedure type, date, outcome, and surgeon
• Behavioral health data, such as diagnoses, therapy notes, medications, substance abuse history, and mental health assessments
• Social determinants of health (SDOH) like income, education, housing, and employment
• Insurance and financial information, including policy details, provider networks, authorization for services, and consent for different payment methods like text-to-pay

With HIE systems, you can centralize this information and provide real-time access to all necessary providers. Ensure your HIE system adheres to industry standards like Health Level 7 (HL7), which provides a framework for electronic health information exchanges, and contains a Continuity of Care Document (CCD) for each patient to summarize and organize medical history.

2. Implement an interoperable electronic health record (EHR) system.

An interoperable electronic health record (EHR) system allows you to digitize patient health records and securely exchange health data between healthcare providers.

In addition to the health-related data discussed in the previous section, EHR systems also provide a safe way to store and share value-based care metrics like:

• Patient satisfaction
• Readmissions
• Patient access to care
• Patient leakage
• Total cost of care

An EHR system gives each provider involved in a patient’s care a comprehensive, easily accessible view of their health history. For best results, adopt a platform that aligns with Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), which outlines industry standards to make electronic health data exchanges more efficient and secure.

3. Standardize data entry and formatting.

Even if data is easily shareable, that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily interpretable. You likely have data stored in various formats, including:

• Structured health data with predefined formatting, such as patient demographics, clinical data, immunization records, medications, and billing information
• Unstructured health data without predefined formatting, such as clinical notes, discharge summaries, and radiology and imaging reports

Use a coding system to establish proper data hygiene procedures and consistent formatting. That way, you can standardize healthcare information and make it easy for other providers to use it effectively. Common healthcare coding systems include:

• International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), which provides codes for diseases, injuries, symptoms, and other conditions
• Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine—Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT), which provides codes for diseases, findings, procedures, microorganisms, and other clinical information
• Logical Observation Identifier Names and Codes (LOINC), which standardizes laboratory test reporting and clinical observations

No matter which coding systems you use, ensure all staff members handling patient data understand how to record and interpret information accordingly.

4. Use cloud-based data storage solutions.

Cloud-based data storage solutions allow healthcare providers to securely store, manage, and share large quantities of patient data internally or with healthcare partners.

For example, Deep Sync’s data enrichment guide explains that platforms like Snowflake allow organizations to “unify and manage their data at scale” and “reduce their database costs and improve their efficiency by providing a variety of data applications and tools in one place.” Snowflake has worked with organizations like East Health Trust PHO, Elevance Health, and Sanofi for enhanced data storage, sharing, and analysis.

Look for a HIPAA-compliant platform that integrates with your other systems to protect data privacy and ensure smooth data transfers. For instance, a cloud-based platform that integrates with your payment system allows you to easily process payments and enhance the patient payment experience.

5. Establish data governance.

Data governance refers to your plan for managing your organization’s data to ensure accuracy, consistency, and security. To implement data governance for your healthcare organization, Arcadia recommends taking the following steps:

• Establish a framework. Create data management policies and procedures to align your team on best practices. Assign data stewardship roles so everyone knows which tasks they’re responsible for. You should also develop a data governance council that presides over data governance policies.
• Implement data management tools and technology. In addition to HIE and EHR systems, gather tools that will allow you to analyze your health data and work seamlessly with your existing technology. 
• Make your data more accessible. Use dashboards to display real-time data analytics and visualizations. This format will help healthcare professionals better interpret and implement relevant data.
• Foster a culture of data-driven decision-making. Ensure your team uses available data to the best of its ability by promoting data literacy, encouraging collaboration, and providing necessary tools and training.

Incorporate your data governance policies and procedures into new hire training to ensure all team members know how to handle data properly from the start.

Data is the key to making well-informed patient care decisions, so it’s essential to remove barriers to data access that can slow or disrupt these decisions. By breaking down healthcare data silos, your organization can easily share and access health data, leading to better decisions and patient outcomes.