Hayes Review: December 2009

Interface Reduction Strategies

By George J. Gides, Jr.

How many of you have heard someone in your organization say, “We have too many interfaces!” Duplicate interfaces are common in healthcare organizations.  Many have been running for years and are accepted as part of the setup. They are passed down from one administration to another. However, when you’re duplicating your interfaces, you are also duplicating your costs associated with them. Each duplicate interface is most likely costing you $4,800 or more per year.

Duplicate interfaces are often installed when:

• A new system is added to a client’s product mix, and it is delivered with new interfaces – or the legacy interface is kept
• Real-time and batch versions of the same interface exist due to “other vendor” specifications.
• There is no strategic connectivity plan for the whole organization

To evaluate whether your organization has a cost-saving opportunity with interfaces, consider the following questions:

• Is your organization running multiple, same-type interfaces for an application from various vendors, creating several points of data transfer failure?
• Are you aware that you pay a monthly maintenance fee for each interface?
• Does your organization use an interface engine?

Interface costs
Duplicate interfaces are costing your company money in two ways: hard costs and soft costs. Hard costs include the vendor’s monthly maintenance fee; usually 2% of the interface license cost. This fee is charged for the life of the interface. Soft costs include labor costs associated with maintaining the interfaces, such as working multiple edit lists.

Six steps for finding and fixing duplicate interfaces
Hayes works with clients to reduce duplicate interfaces through the following six steps.

1. Identify matching interfaces.

• Review existing setup in SIU 7.0 and SIU 8.4.
• Evaluate interface engine utilization.
• Combine “feeds” for real-time interfaces.
• Convert “batch” interfaces to “real-time” or vice versa.

2. Create detailed specifications and combined interface specifications.

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3. Develop a detailed report and step-by-step project plan for combining similar interfaces.

• Estimate coding/testing required to combine duplicate interfaces.
• Perform interface coding and testing.

4. Enhance/update interface edit lists.

• Sort interface edit lists, and remove non-essential edits to simplify edit processing.

5. Create future interface strategy.

• Ensure the connectivity design meets your current and expected connectivity requirements.
• Make sure that no “future” duplicate interfaces are created by performing a full examination of existing connectivity schemas as well as future application and connectivity plans.
• Investigate applicable new technologies that may make HL7 interfaces obsolete under certain circumstances.

6. Conduct a return on investment (ROI) analysis.

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To consider how much money your company can save, ponder the facts below:

• Interface monthly maintenance fees (MMFs) run from $4,800 to $8,400 yearly per interface (calculated based on 2% of a $20,000 to $35,000 annual license fee). Consequently, if you run two standard charge interfaces you are paying between $9,600 and $16,800 yearly in maintenance fees.
• The “lifespan” of an average interface is seven to 10 years. Thus, the cost over that period is $33,600 to $84,000 per interface.

Before and after
The picture below (click for larger view) shows how your system would look before and after an interface reduction is made.

Hayes is experienced with interfaces from all vendor systems. If you need interface assistance, please call us at 617-559-0404 or email us with your question or issue at info@hayesmanagement.com.

George Gides is a senior healthcare consultant at Hayes who specializes in interoperability strategy, design and implementation. He has 25 years of healthcare industry experience.