Surescripts reports healthcare interoperability reached record levels in 2022

More than 2 million care providers exchanged patient clinical and benefit information more than 21.7 billion times in 2022, reaching virtually every American patient, according to the Surescripts 2022 National Progress Report. In the face of ongoing provider burnout, staffing shortages and increasing costs, interoperability in health care flourished, and the Surescripts Network Alliance came together to simplify how health intelligence is shared.

“While there is no single solution to the challenges facing healthcare today, we have billions of reasons for hope that come with every exchange of secure patient information,” said Frank Harvey, CEO of Surescripts. “I’m inspired every day when I see the ways the Surescripts Network Alliance is coming together to solve health care’s shared challenges with shared health intelligence—and making significant headway toward better, safer, less costly care in America.”

[Read more: Surescripts reports healthcare interoperability reached record levels amid pandemic]

Report highlights:

• More clinicians and organizations tapped into the Carequality interoperability framework via Record Locator & Exchange, surpassing more than 1 billion; clinical documents exchanged in 2022 and representing 30% of Carequality’s average monthly exchange activity;
• Clinicians exchanged more than 174 million secure, HIPAA-compliant Clinical Direct messages;
• 2.34 billion prescriptions were filled electronically, and 2.54 billion patient medication histories were delivered; and
• Nearly 700,000 prescribers used Real-Time Prescription Benefit to save patients an average of $61 on traditional prescriptions and $428 on specialty medications last year.

Surescripts exchanged much more than electronic prescriptions in 2022, including patient eligibility and formulary data that informed 4.34 billion care events, nearly 500 million prescription benefit checks at the point of prescribing and 44% more prior authorizations processed electronically compared to 2021. At the same time, the number of prescribers using the Surescripts network increased by nearly 8%. That growth was largely attributed to new prescriber specialties and roles across evolving care teams—including residents, nurse practitioners, dentists and physician assistants.

[Read more: Surescripts intros next generation of patient matching]

“It’s clear that the interoperability that’s happening across the Surescripts network is having a direct impact on patients’ lives,” said Alan Swenson, executive director of Carequality. “Thousands of individual healthcare organizations across the country are innovating to make life easier and safer for their staff and patients.”

Download the Surescripts 2022 National Progress Report to learn more.