The American Hospital Association's (AHA) new white paper outlines how the use of health IT can improve quality across the care continuum.

The paper focuses on care coordination and transition management; new and emerging healthcare models; patient and family care; and team-based care. It also offers resources related to workforce-specific roles, responsibilities and technologies to help hospitals transition to value-based care delivery models.

Health IT will drive quality care as "the common fiber that supports" the paper's four focus areas.

"Technology has--and will continue to have--a huge impact on the transition of care delivery and the associated workforce roles and responsibilities," according to the paper. Ongoing evaluations of health IT and how it affects different care models will be necessary to continue innovation in the healthcare industry.

The push for EHR interoperability will continue, according to the organization. "Interoperable health information systems are key to configuring service delivery in new and emerging care coordination models. The EHR is an important tool to advance the quality of communication and information exchange across provider systems and to improve health outcomes."

Meaningful Use will be a primary driver in advancing widespread adoption of interoperable technologies. "To be optimally effective, EHRs require broad adoption, practitioners must pay constant attention to data entry to minimize errors and care coordination patterns have to be reengineered to accommodate EHR usage."

Read the complete white paper.