A Nurse’s Perspective on Interoperability

How does interoperability help nurses deliver safer, more efficient, patient-centred care?

Today, nurses play a key role in coordinating care, advocating for patients, and making clinical decisions. However, they often need to gather information from different systems, facilities, and providers, which can be fragmented.

This whitepaper, A Nurse’s Perspective on Interoperability, explores how Health Information Exchange (HIE) and interoperable data platforms empower nurses with real-time, trusted, and comprehensive patient information, supporting critical thinking, reducing administrative burden, and improving outcomes.

Read the full white paper for more details.

Why interoperability is critical for nursing practice

Changes like healthcare reform, value-based care, increased telehealth, and team-based care are changing what nurses do. The white paper (see Introduction and Strategic Context) highlights that nurses are:

• Leading and coordinating multidisciplinary care teams
• Managing complex chronic conditions
• Supporting population health initiatives
• Advocating for patients across care settings
• Enabling digital health adoption and patient empowerment

To do these jobs well, nurses need health data that is:

• Trusted, with a clear source and one reliable record
• Comprehensive, covering hospital, community, behavioural, and social care data
• Real-time, so nurses can make quick clinical decisions
• Well organised, which helps reduce information overload and highlights what is most important.

If data is difficult to share, nurses waste valuable time searching for information rather than caring for patients.

What is interoperability in nursing?

In nursing, interoperability means that healthcare systems, electronic medical records (EMRs), and Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) can safely share and show patient data across different care settings in real time. For nurses, this means:

• Accessing medication updates, care plans, and diagnostics instantly
• Avoiding duplication of tests and outreach
• Identifying care gaps across populations
• Supporting safe transitions of care

When systems work together, clinical workflows become smoother, and nurses can make better decisions.

Nursing use cases for Health Information Exchange (HIE)

The white paper gives real examples of how interoperable data platforms can change the way nurses work:

1. New patient encounters

Nurses in primary care, emergency rooms, hospital wards, and long-term care often see patients whose medical histories are incomplete in their local EMR.

An interoperable HIE enables nurses to:

• Instantly view prior admissions, specialist visits, and diagnoses.
• Reduce delays in care.
• Improve patient experience.
• Support safer first-contact decision-making.

2. Complex chronic care management

Patients with multiple chronic conditions often see numerous providers across different organisations.

Interoperability allows nurses to:

• Coordinate holistic care plans.
• Monitor behavioural, social, and clinical indicators.
• Lead multidisciplinary teams with confidence.
• Manage the full continuum of care.

3. Real-time medication & care plan updates

If a specialist changes a patient’s medication or starts a new treatment outside the main organisation, HIE platforms let nurses see these updates right away.

This enables nurses to:

• Monitor for adverse reactions.
• Trigger follow-up labs or assessments.
• Adjust care plans proactively.

4. Population health & cohort management

For nurses overseeing defined patient panels, interoperable analytics tools support:

• Risk stratification.
• Gap-in-care identification.
• Remote monitoring integration.
• Trend analysis (e.g., blood pressure, kidney function, glucose levels).

This change helps nurses move from reacting to problems to preventing them, which is very important in value-based care.

Interoperability helps prevent nurse burnout.

Nurses face significant challenges, including staff shortages, heavy workloads, and excessive paperwork.

Interoperability supports:

• Streamlined workflows, so nurses spend less time searching for data.
• Reduced duplication, with fewer repeated calls and less unnecessary paperwork.
• Improved workload management.
• Greater job satisfaction and retention.

When nurses get more time back thanks to interoperable systems, they can focus on what matters most: caring for patients.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does interoperability improve patient safety?

By providing real-time access to comprehensive medical histories, medication updates, and care plans, interoperability reduces clinical errors, duplicate tests, and adverse events.

Why do nurses need Health Information Exchanges?

Nurses require HIEs to coordinate care across multiple providers, access complete patient records, manage chronic conditions, and support population health initiatives.

What data do nurses need for effective care coordination?

Trusted, real-time, and comprehensive data, including medications, lab results, diagnoses, social determinants of health, behavioural health information, and remote monitoring inputs.

How does interoperability support value-based care?

It enables proactive care management, gap identification, coordinated care delivery, and outcome tracking, key components of value-based reimbursement models.

Why HIE is a strategic investment for nursing leadership

Nurses are among the highest-volume users of Health Information Exchanges. They create and use a lot of data, and this is increasing.

Investing in interoperable health data platforms:

• Enhances clinical decision-making.
• Enables team-based care.
• Supports precision medicine.
• Advances population health strategies.
• Improves patient-centred outcomes.

The white paper concludes that nurses should be involved in the design, improvement, and management of interoperable clinical tools. This helps make sure technology truly supports care on the front lines.

Download the full white paper

Learn how interoperable data platforms and Health Information Exchanges can change nursing practice and improve patient-centred care.

To read the full white paper, click the button below.