Patient handoffs to post-acute care providers still largely a manual process, hindering effective c…

There is a big push both from the private market and federal policymakers to improve interoperability and open up access to health data through smartphone apps and other digital tools.

But on the front lines of healthcare, the way patient information is shared remains largely a manual process done through a combination of faxes, emails, phone calls and paper records, according to a recent study on transitions of care.

The chief medical officer of one hospital admitted that “the routine is patients leave with an envelope full of their chart, and we don’t have shared EHRs,” according to the report from PointClickCare, a cloud-based electronic health record (EHR) vendor.