Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, is a level one trauma center that has recognition for clinical excellence in cardiology, neurology, orthopedics, transplants, and treatment for cancer (Henry, 2016). Henry Ford Health Systems has over 23,000 employees, and is the fifth largest employer in the Metro-Detroit area, and is also one of the most diverse health systems (Henry, 2016). An important aspect of a healthcare organization is health informatics. Ensuring health technology information is up to standard and specifications is crucial for the development of a fully functional health IT system (Standards, 2014). The standards of the applications the IT department at Henry Ford Hospital will be examined. The importance of these standards, and any …show more content…
Among the hospitals is Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. Due to such a large health system, a major standard for application among IT is interoperability (Henry, 2016). Interoperability is the extent to which all systems can exchange data, and interpret that data (Healthcare, 2016). Health Information Technology standards are followed via the Health Information Exchange. To standardize interoperability between the Henry Ford Health System, there are several building blocks. These include: meaning through the use of standardized healthcare vocabularies; structure by leveraging standards in Health Level Seven, or HL7; transport of information using secure protocols; security through the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and encryption standards; and services through open, and accessible application programming interfaces (Standards, 2014). An example of a health information standard is Health Level Seven, or HL7. Within HL7, transmitting data about patient registration, admission, discharge and transfers, insurance, charges and payers, orders and results for laboratory tests, image studies, nursing and physician observations, diet orders, pharmacy orders, supply orders, and master files (Blair, 1999). The ability to exchange information regarding appointments, scheduling, and other issues is also important for interoperability across the health system (Blair, 1999). Another important health information technology standard used by Henry Ford Hospital is IEEE, also known as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional society, and consists of standards regarding to the exchange of information between hospital computer systems (Blair, 1999). Henry Ford Hospital is one of the six hospitals included in the Henry Ford Health System, therefore the exchange of information between all systems is crucial for proper IT