Healthcare Data Should Follow the Patient

A patient leaves the hospital with a changed medication, sees a specialist two weeks later, and calls their health plan about a bill. The hospital, specialist, pharmacy, and health plan each hold part of that person's history. The patient may still have to explain what happened at every step.

In AI in the Health Care Industry: Driving Efficiency and Better Patient Experiences, Harvard Business Review Analytic Services describes how clinical, financial, and operational information often sits in separate systems. Staff bridge the gaps with calls, emails, spreadsheets, and repeated data entry. The resulting work affects claims, prior authorizations, scheduling, and patient support.

Electronic records have not solved the handoff

In 2024, 95% of U.S. office-based physicians used an electronic health record. Hospitals have also made progress exchanging information. In 2023, 70% of non-federal acute care hospitals reported that they could send, find, receive, and integrate outside information at least sometimes. 43% did all four routinely.

Availability does not guarantee use. The gap between having data and acting on it is where the operating problem lives.

Source: ONC, “Interoperable Exchange of Patient Health Information Among U.S. Hospitals: 2023.”

The HBR report helps explain the gap. Information may be dispersed across systems, stored in formats that are difficult to search, or maintained through manual processes. A record that arrives but requires someone to hunt for it may do little to improve the next decision.

The problem becomes more visible when care crosses organizational boundaries. Patients and caregivers often carry information across those boundaries themselves.

Patients can access more records, but still have to piece them together

Patient access has improved. In a 2024 federal survey, 77% of individuals reported being offered online access to their medical records by a healthcare provider or insurer. 65% had accessed a record or patient portal at least once in the previous year.

Source: ONC, “Individuals’ Access and Use of Patient Portals and Smartphone Health Apps, 2024,” published July 2025.

Which medication list is current? Did the specialist receive the hospital result? Does the health plan have the documentation needed to answer a coverage question? Those are questions patients and staff encounter during ordinary care.

Connection has to improve the work itself

The HBR report offers examples of what better-connected information could support. Interviewees discuss easier access to coverage information, identifying patients who need outreach, using appointment capacity more effectively, and reducing manual work in revenue cycle processes.

Patients should have a stronger claim to their information

At VHealth, we support patient ownership of medical information as an operating principle. People should be able to see their information, understand it, request corrections, and take it with them when they change providers or health plans.

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “Get it. Check it. Use it.” hhs.gov

Use technology with accountable oversight

In 2024, nine in ten hospitals reported bringing data from third-party technology into their electronic health records for at least one clinical purpose. Much of that exchange still used proprietary connections rather than standards-based APIs. The Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) is one effort to support secure exchange across networks, including patient access.

Source: ONC, “Hospital Use of APIs to Enable Data Sharing between EHRs and Third-Party Technology,” 2024. TEFCA figure is approximate.

Artificial intelligence can help staff locate information, organize records, and flag inconsistencies. The HBR report repeatedly returns to the conditions for using it responsibly: dependable source data, integration into the work people already do, testing, ongoing monitoring, and human review. It also cautions against buying technology before defining the problem it should solve.

Measure what actually changed for patients and staff

A payer or provider can measure progress without claiming a complete view of every patient. The right measures bring the work back to its purpose.

Healthcare holds a great deal of data. Patients need access to their own history, and the organizations caring for them need reliable information when they make a decision. The operating problem is not a shortage of data — it is a shortage of data that moves to the right place at the right time.