Healthcare has spent years connecting electronic systems. The goal is simple: patient information should flow seamlessly between providers. But in most practices today, that information still doesn’t arrive when you need it, or in the format you can actually use.
Interoperability has been a federal priority for two decades. The latest CMS Interoperability Framework continues that effort, but practical challenges remain. Patent records arrive incomplete, lab results appear in different formats, and critical details live in unstructured notes. Practices spend time reconciling information instead of using it for patient care.
As a recent Forbes analysis points out, the technology exists. The problem is implementation. Interoperability has become a workflow challenge, not a technology one.
Forbes identified five strategies healthcare organizations need to make interoperability actually work, but even these strategies fall short when practices don’t translate them into functional workflows. Below, we’ve paired each Forbes insight with steps to put it into practice.
The Strategy: Follow the CMS Blueprint
The CMS Interoperability Framework provides a shared foundation for data exchange across healthcare providers, payers, and technology vendors. While participation is voluntary, the framework sets criteria that will likely become standard expectations.
Aligning early means staying ahead of requirements instead of catching up later. However, alignment alone doesn’t solve the practical problem of how information actually moves through your daily operations.
Action Step: Start with Patient Intake
Frameworks don’t fix workflow problems, but proper patient intake does. Your practice needs structured data from the moment patients first share their information.
Patient intake forms are where clinical information enters your system. When that data flows directly into your EHR in a standardized format, everything downstream works better.
HIPAA-compliant forms that integrate with your system reduce manual data entry and create cleaner records from the start. Clean data at intake means fewer problems when information needs to move between systems. In turn, your staff spends less time fixing errors and more time on patient care.
The Strategy: Adopt Modern Data Exchange Standards
FHIR-based tools address data quality problems and manage information requests securely. This standard creates consistent data structure across healthcare systems.
That said, many practices adopt FHIR without changing how their teams actually collect and handle patient information. If your intake process still relies on paper forms, manual data entry, or inconsistent field naming, FHIR can’t fix those upstream problems.
Action Step: Make Sure Your Forms Talk to Your EHR
Your patient intake system needs to connect with your EHR and meet modern data exchange standards. Many practices choose forms platforms that technically comply with FHIR but don’t actually integrate with their existing systems.
Look for platforms with EHR integration that can adapt as standards evolve. When your forms platform works smoothly with your other systems, patient information flows reliably from initial contact through care delivery without manual intervention.
The Strategy: Automate Quality Reporting
Quality measures like HEDIS still rely on manual processes in most practices. Interoperable systems promise to handle this reporting automatically, but automation breaks down when data is incomplete or inconsistent.
Your system can’t automate reporting on information that was never collected in the first place. Incomplete intake forms mean your staff still has to chase down missing data points manually.
Action Step: Collect Complete Data from the Start
Automated quality reporting needs complete, consistent data to function. Many practices implement automation but continue accepting incomplete patient intake forms, which defeats the purpose.
With required fields in digital forms, patients must submit complete information before their appointment. Intake forms that capture all necessary data points upfront enable automated quality reporting to work as intended. Your staff avoids the follow-up calls and manual corrections that consume time better spent on patient care.
The Strategy: Bring Together Multiple Data Sources
For most organizations, clinical registries, trial data, claims information, and billing records still remain disconnected. A centralized approach to clinical data management allows practices to access these different sources through one platform.
However, consolidating multiple data sources only works if the information coming in is standardized. Inconsistent formats across data sources prevent true centralization, creating a messy collection of incompatible data instead of a unified view.
Action Step: Centralize Patient Information Collection
The more data sources you use, the more critical it becomes to standardize how information enters your system. If patient intake data uses one structure, billing uses another, and registry data uses a third, you can’t meaningfully combine them.
Starting with a unified approach to patient intake creates a consistent foundation. Using one platform to collect patient information creates a consistent structure that simplifies integration with other data sources.
The Strategy: Make Data Sharing a Core Practice Principle
Treating data sharing as fundamental to operations instead of a technical add-on changes how teams approach daily processes. Staff who prioritize outcomes and accountability from the start create sustainable interoperability.
Cultural shifts don’t happen through policy statements or training sessions alone. Your team needs practical tools and workflows that make data sharing easier than the old way of doing things.
Action Step: Build Workflows Around Information Flow
Your practice workflow needs to make data sharing the default, starting with how you onboard patients. Culture change happens when the right way is also the simplest way.
Electronic signatures and automated form delivery remove manual handoffs that slow information flow and create errors. Less time chasing forms and fixing data means more time using patient information for care.
Moving from Strategy to Practice
Interoperability has moved beyond the question of whether systems can connect. The technology exists. Yet, interoperability still fails in daily practice because implementation lags behind capability.
Forbes’ strategies outline the path forward, but they require practical implementation. Your practice can close that gap by starting where patient information enters your system. A patient engagement platform that prioritizes clean, standardized intake data makes every downstream interoperability goal more achievable.
