Continuity Care Document (CCD) Interoperability between systems

Continuity Care Document
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October 17, 2019
Availability of health records for healthcare professionals is a crucial element in providing the highest quality of care. It allows practitioners, patients, and other stakeholders to access information in a timely and efficient manner that could save more lives. However, promoting this principle of interoperability is not an easy task. It requires a great deal of change in order to make sure that each part of the healthcare system could have the necessary information while also giving high consideration to the privacy of the individual. Nevertheless, one of the ways that the United States has ensured that these pieces of information would be easily available is through the implementation of Continuous Care Document (CCD). In this article, the importance and the contents of a CCD would be discussed in greater detail.
The Continuous Care Document
Generally, a CCD is “an electronic document exchange standard for sharing patient summary information” CITATION Rou10 \l 1033 (Rouse, 2010). By using a standardized form that is defined by the ASTM Continuity of Care Record (CCR), every healthcare provider, practitioners, and even the patients could have access of their health information, history, medications, and even insurance anytime and anywhere. In fact, a CCD is intended to be readable anytime and anywhere by anyone authorized to do so, using a standard web browser such as Google Chrome or Safari CITATION McN12 \l 1033 (McNickle, 2012).
To illustrate its importance, imagine a scenario where an unknown patient was rushed to the hospital due to heavy blood loss following an injury in neck. In most cases, the physician would have enough time to test the patient’s blood type and rhesus factor. However, in severe cases when the patient is close to experiencing hypovolemic shock, the attending professionals would need to do it as early as possible, which exponentially increases the risks. Accordingly, having an integrated healthcare record system with the help of the CCD would decrease this risk and increase the chances of living especially in life and death situations like this.
Part of a CCD
The CCD is composed of d...