Healthcare and President Obama's Address
Electronic Health Records are a Key Element to Healthcare Reform
Feb 25, 2009
Late in the evening of February 24, 2009 President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress and the American people. About half way through his speech he stated, “Our recovery plan will invest in electronic health records and new technology that will reduce errors, bring down costs, ensure privacy, and save lives”. The President is hitting at the heart of the matter.
Why Electronic Health Records are Good for Healthcare
The sharing of information is paramount for quality, efficient healthcare. Judith Gramah reported in the Chicago Tribune on October 13, 2008 that $700 billion dollars out of $2.1 trillion in healthcare spending is wasted - a whopping 1/3 of all healthcare spending. A large portion of that waste is from a lack of sharing information.
How does it happen? The United States has a disjointed healthcare system. A patient has a laboratory test, x-ray or MRI performed at a hospital in his hometown. Later he goes to a second hospital located in another city, but forgets to bring the records or does not tell the second hospital about the first hospital visit. The second hospital either does not know to request the information or does not want to request the information from the first hospital because it often takes too much time. The second hospital reorders the tests.
How does a patient benefit? Reordered tests cost the patient and/or his insurance company money. It also saves lives. A doctor almost never has the records for all the different doctors a patient may see and therefore does not have a full picture of the patient’s health. Some disease states that could be diagnosed in their early stages and treated with relative ease are missed for a lack of a complete picture of the patient’s health status.
Why is There Resistance to Electronic Health Records?
The first reason is that to switch over from paper health records to electronic health records (EHR) takes capital. Many facilities have already made the leap, but that leads into the next problem – compatability.
Not every EHR is run in the same format. For those who have already invested in EHR there is a chance that they would have to reinvest.
Many doctors feel that an EHR system takes away from their automony to practice medicine in the way they see fit by offering prompts to complete certain treatments or modalities. This is called practicing evidence based medicine. Patient care in general benefits from doctors practicing medicine according the latest methods that have been proven to work rather than by gut feelings or prescribing medicine based on which drug representative bought them lunch that day.
Patients have concerns over the privacy of their health information. The fear is that insurance companies or employers can use information against them to deny healthcare coverage or employment. This problem can be solved with good procedures that adhere to HIPAA guidelines.
The last issue is profit. If the United States spends $700 billion less on health care someone in health care is going to have to take a pay cut. Shareholders, hospitals, and healthcare workers profit from inefficiency.
Examples of Hospital Systems that Use Electronic Health Records
The Veterans Affairs Hospitals and the military already use EHR systems that share information across the United States and the world. Duke University Health System has an EHR system that shares information across the state of North Carolina.
This is a problem that can be solved. Lives and money can be saved by simply sharing information. They only thing missing in the past was a leader to take the United States healtcare system there. President Obama looks like that leader.
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