We Americans have the most advanced medical science and the best-trained medical professionals in the world, but we are not getting the best possible medical care. Our medical professionals are practicing 21st-century medicine with 19th-century tools. They’re using paper charts that aren’t always where they need to be, with handwritten notes that read like a cipher. They can’t easily compare notes from clinical practice to see what works. As a result, Americans can’t tell how good their care is or how much it costs. They also suffer needlessly from medical errors that could be avoided.
Here in Memphis, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is working with medical professionals to bring the practice of medicine all the way into the information age. This collaboration promises to transform American health care through the fuller use of health information technology. The rewards will be much safer and more efficient care, connecting more Americans to information on quality and cost and giving them more control over their health care options.
This transformation has been in the works for some time, but we are now beginning to see how it will change our lives for the better. We recently found a family in Cincinnati caring for their 6-year-old son Kyle. Kyle needed two liver transplants, and after the first transplant the family endured a daily agony to monitor his progress. A nurse would come every morning to test his blood, but the family wouldn’t get the results until suppertime. Only then would they know whether they needed to spend the next day at the hospital. At the last minute, they had to arrange transportation to the hospital, babysitters for their other children, and time off work. But the hardest part was the long day’s wait to find out how Kyle was doing.
Things changed after Kyle’s second transplant, when the family was granted access to the hospital’s new online liver portal. Kyle’s mother could then read the results of his blood test online in just a couple of hours. It was a big relief just having time to plan the next day, but she could also e-mail questions to Kyle’s nurse and become a more active partner in her son’s care. More than once she was able to spot concerns on Kyle’s online chart that made a difference in his treatment. And now, when they travel, they don’t have to lug along Kyle’s hefty medical file. His records are available to any hospital through the online portal.
Physicians also benefit from the use of electronic health records (EHRs), which they can access anywhere from handheld computers. EHRs save physicians from having to read through pages and pages of handwritten notes to find the little details that can make a big difference in treatment. They alert physicians immediately to dangerous drug interactions and allergies. They enable prescriptions to be sent electronically directly from the handheld device to the pharmacy. They also allow researchers to track treatment outcomes so that they can gauge the quality of care and learn more quickly from clinical practice what works best.
HHS has been supporting the adoption of EHRs through the development of software standards to ensure that our electronic health information systems are interoperable. This year, we will be working to expand adoption of EHRs by as many as 1,200 small and medium-sized physician practices, who will receive higher Medicare payments for using certified, interoperable EHRs to improve quality of care for their patients. This will reduce errors and improve health outcomes for an estimated 3.6 million Americans. We will select 12 communities to participate in the demo and will soon begin accepting applications.
We are also working to help communities measure and publish information on the quality and cost of care, so that consumers can make better decisions about providers and treatment options. In the next few days, we will charter the first local and regional collaboratives that will reward those who provide, pay for and consume high-quality, competitively priced health care. These new Chartered Value Exchanges will bring together providers, insurers, employers and consumers to produce and publish reports on provider performance based on Medicare information and similar private-sector results.
We are pleased to announce today that the Healthy Memphis Common Table is among the first collaboratives to become a Chartered Value Exchange. Healthy Memphis brings together local coalitions, care providers, agencies, businesses, government, churches, schools and individuals. All are committed to using value-driven principles to improve the health of everyone in the Mid-South region.
Also in 2008, we will be providing greater support for health information technology and telemedicine in rural areas. In conjunction with the Federal Communications Commission, HHS is announcing grants to foster greater use of technology to provide care to rural communities through telemedicine, which will extend the reach of 21st-century health care to many underserved people.
All this is not just about getting computers into doctors’ offices. It’s about creating interoperable systems connecting the doctor’s office with the hospital, the lab, the pharmacy, the researcher and the consumer. When we have done that, we will have transformed our growing health care sector into a safer, more efficient, value-driven health care system, providing better care at lower cost for all Americans.
Source: The Commercial Appeal
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