U.S.: Electronic Health Records..
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| Mon, 07-26-2004 - 10:09am |
My only problem, if it is a problem, is who has access to the files. For example, insurance companies other than one's personal provider, pharmaceutical companies, employers, having access to data. Other than my access question it'll be much more efficiant & safe system for all.
U.S. Sets Sights on Electronic Health Records.
http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2004/07/26/hscout520267.html
Scott Wallace's dog, Samantha, has computerized health records. His car does, too. But he does not.
"I have more information on the treatment of my 14-year-old Acura Legend than my own treatment in the last 14 years, and I have more current available information about my dog than I do about myself or any of my kids," Wallace said. "That's crazy."
The U.S. government agrees, so sometime over the next decade Wallace and many other dog and car owners should get their own computerized health records.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson has just released the first outline of a 10-year plan to computerize health care. The report, cumbersomely named The Decade of Health Information Technology: Delivering Consumer-centric and Information-Rich Health Care, was unveiled in Washington, D.C., at an information technology summit.
"No longer will up to 100,000 people die from medical errors," said Dr. David J. Brailer, the new National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, a position created by President Bush in April. "No longer will we spend up to $300 billion a year on inappropriate treatment or up to $150 billion on administrative waste. No longer will we have to fill out the same form 50 times."
The issue, says Wallace, owner of Samantha and president and chief executive officer of the National Alliance for Health Information Technology in Chicago, is "how do you make information move with patients, so that patients aren't having to carry it around on their own physically and in their head? How do you make the system more efficient?" The alliance represents an effort to use more technology in the health-care arena.
The report, which was prepared by Brailer, is an outgrowth of President Bush's recent call for electronic health records for most Americans.
According to the report, the U.S. health-care system lags behind banks and grocery stores when it comes to information technology. In 2002, only 13 percent of hospitals and 14 percent to 28 percent of physicians' practices reported using electronic health records.
The new system would let consumers access medication information on the Web or via phone and even teleconference with their physician over the Internet, Brailer explained. "They'll have access to information on how well their doctor or hospital does various procedures," he added. "They can pick the provider that works best for them. It's consumer-centric. It's built around the person and not the different players."
Needless to say, the initiative will take great coordination of an extremely fragmented health-care system. And it will need to ensure that records stay secure. According to Wallace, this is not as much of an issue as it sounds. "I'm not stupid enough to think that all records are forever impenetrable, but most are, and at least we have systems to see who was looking," he said.
The technology already exists. "This is not a technology issue and not a health-care issue. It's a leadership issue," Wallace said. In fact, various experiments around the country are under way, including one with Medicare recipients in Indiana.
Wallace's own interest in the subject came out of personal experience. After suffering a stroke, Wallace's father had what's known in medical parlance as an "adverse drug event." A cardiologist prescribed medication that conflicted with what the neurologist had already given him, causing his heart to stop. "The squad picked him up and raced him to the hospital," Wallace recalled. "This was a third set of doctors who had to figure out what the first two had done."
"What we're trying to get to with the whole concept of electronic health records is the idea that patients aren't responsible for their information, and physicians aren't responsible for their information," Wallace continued. "The system provides the information. It puts up big flashing screening, saying, 'Don't do this.' It allows for a coordination. I have yet to meet a dastardly doctor. They want to do well, but systems are bad."
Wallace eventually moved his father to a Veterans Administration facility that had a centralized computer system.
As for the dog, Samantha, the age of computers allowed her to vacation in Canada. "We were going to Canada and we were unaware that we had to have the immunization records with us," Wallace related. But sitting at customs outside the Peace Bridge separating New York State from Ontario, Wallace called up Samantha's records on the Internet and showed them to the agent. After reviewing her medical history on the computer screen, Canadian Customs waved the whole family through.
More information
For more on the report, visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.


Study: Hospital errors cause 195,000 deaths.
Report doubles earlier Institute of Medicine estimate.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/07/28/health.mistakes.reut/index.html
As many as 195,000 people a year could be dying in U.S. hospitals because of easily prevented errors, a company said Tuesday in an estimate that doubles previous figures.
Lakewood, Colorado-based HealthGrades Inc. said its data covers all 50 states and is more up-to-date than a 1999 study from the Institute of Medicine that said 98,000 people a year die from medical errors.
"The HealthGrades study shows that the IOM report may have underestimated the number of deaths due to medical errors, and, moreover, that there is little evidence that patient safety has improved in the last five years," said Dr. Samantha Collier, vice president of medical affairs at the company.
The company, which rates hospitals based on a variety of criteria and provides information to insurers and health plans, said its researchers looked at three years of Medicare data in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
"This Medicare population represented approximately 45 percent of all hospital admissions (excluding obstetric patients) in the U.S. from 2000 to 2002," the company said in a statement.
HealthGrades included as mistakes failure to rescue dying patients and the death of low-risk patients from infections -- neither of which the Institute of Medicine report included.
It said it found about 1.14 million "patient-safety incidents" occurred among the 37 million hospitalizations.
"Of the total 323,993 deaths among Medicare patients in those years who developed one or more patient-safety incidents, 263,864, or 81 percent, of these deaths were directly attributable to the incidents," it added.
"One in every four Medicare patients who were hospitalized from 2000 to 2002 and experienced a patient-safety incident died."
The U.S. government said it is trying to spearhead a move to get hospitals and clinics to use electronic databases and prescribing methods. The Institute of Medicine report said many deaths were due to medication prescribing errors or to errors in delivering medications.
"If the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's annual list of leading causes of death included medical errors, it would show up as number six, ahead of diabetes, pneumonia, Alzheimer's disease and renal disease," Collier said.
ITA, and I'm more worried about a hospital giving me the drug that I'm allergic to than I am about someone getting their paws on my medical records. Twice now, I've had nurses/doctors trying to give a drug that I'm highly allergic to, *despite* the red plastic allergy bracelet they always put on my arm. I've been in the hospital 2 times in the past 4 years (giving birth...thank goodness the visits were for a good thing! :D ) and the staff at both hospitals seemed to just ignore that red bracelet. One positive thing I do have to say is that they were good about checking the bracelet on me or my husband and our babies when we took the baby out of the room, and when we were being discharged.
"I've had nurses/doctors trying to give a drug that I'm highly allergic to......"
What if you'd been not paying attention, unconscious or an old person that trusted the caregiver?
I've had incorrect dosages almost given to me.
One has to stay on
I'd have swelled up like a balloon and probably suffocated. :(
"Nursing staff in most hospitals is stretched thin."
Stretched to the point that they are either making mistakes or inhospitable. With my second delivery, I had a epidueral that just worked too well....I had my son at 1 pm, falling asleep during the delivery because I was tired and completely numb...anyhow, I just started to get the feeling back in my legs at 7 at night or so, and had to use the bathroom very badly. I called the nurse and told her I'd like to get up and use the ladies, she asked me about the feeling in my legs, and I explained that I was sure with her help I could get there. She told me to wait. I said I *had* to go (it had been 6 hours since I'd went, and with the drips they'd been pumping into me, I was *dying*), and she just looked at me, said real snotty "well, I don't catch" and turned on her heel and left.
I had to wait till my dh got back to the room to help me. He was so mad. I have a feeling that she was tired and cranky because I know at that time a lot of the nurses there were on strike and the ones that were working were pulling hellatious shifts. It's sad when they're working nurses so hard they have that kind of attitude.
I have several friends who are nurses and they say the same thing.
Merlins_Own
AS ABOVE, SO BELOW!
I agree. What's scary, too, is that care and attention that USED TO BE done by nurses is done now by people who are not well trained and aren't nurses (sometimes they hardly speak/understand English!), either, just so the hosptial can save $$$ -- at patients' risk. ://
Merlins_Own
AS ABOVE, SO BELOW!
Unbelievable. There is NO excuse for this kind of unprofessional crap. NONE! I would have reported her -- after I was safely home, of course.
Merlins_Own
AS ABOVE, SO BELOW!
An interesting, little bit related fact:
4% of all credit card fraud is internet related, half of this percentage is fraud commited by credit card holders trying to fraudulenty get out of paying for their purchases.
I know this because DH is embroiled with a former customer who wrote his credit card company and reversed $15,000 worth of charges paid to my husband for work over the course of a year, saying that he was not satisfied with the results. DH got the fun of taking a years worth of emails (my husband saves EVERYTHING thank goodness) from the customer telling him what a good job he was doing on this ongoing project to the lawyers. I found that fact when researching what my DHs rights were in our situation.
I wonder how many people will be hacking into database trying to monkey with their own records for their own gain somehow....nothing suprises me anymore....