Aside from possible privacy issues, a potential problem with this would have shown up in New Orleans. You need power to access electronic records.
Government push might spell the end of paper records – If President George W. Bush has his way, every American patient should have an electronic medical record by 2015 as part of an executive order released April 27 that includes the formation of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
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I’ve been taught over the years that if something isn’t broken don’t fix it. That’s exactly what I think of this situation. Computer records are great and all, but critical things like this should stay on paper. At least make hard-copies of the records incase something should happen.
Yes, you wouldn’t be able to access the records in New Orleans where there is no power. But when you got to Houston the records would accessible there for your new doctors right away, instead of being under water. I think all the people who worry about privacy over look the benefits that could be gained. Don’t get me wrong I know that this info could be seriously abused if proper safe guards are not in place.
My little locally-owned bank has pretty much done away with paper. You may fill out a form for something; but, as soon as practical, it’s scanned and stored — in a couple of widely-separated data warehouses as well as onsite.
I can access a canceled check online — both sides — and see when it was cashed, deposited, etc.. If I wish, they’ll provide me with an annual catalog on CD. Business, of course, can acquire more frequency. Even loan transactions are moved onto redundant hard drives.
Out here in Los Angeles then 70% of hospital walk-in patients are illegal immigrants cashing in on the “free healthcare” that Vicente Fox advertises. So how do they get their treatment? Will this program give american citizens a better chance at getting their finger reattached or does the illegal with the sniffles still get priority.
This would be another unfunded mandate. There are a lot of advantages to having digital medical records – a LOT – but even when you have power, it’s really hard to get there:
– agree on a format
– transcribe all the paper records ACCURATELY
– convert from myriads of other formats now in use
– make corrections to the agreed upon format
– convert everything for the changes….
It would probably take about 30 hours to enter my considerable paper record accurately into a data base.
But when you got to Houston the records would accessible there for your new doctors right away, instead of being under water.
Unless the files are stored on a server that is underwater, back in New Orleans. 😉
With Docotrs moving all their paper files to electronic, I know that Medical Transcription was a growth business – for awile. I assume that it has all been sent overseas, now.
Anyway, back to the original point.
The data being accessable in Houston doesn’t mean it is useable.
From the article:
With so many companies offering different forms of EMR systems, problems of compatibility between systems of different facilities might arise.
One responsibility placed on the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology by Bush is to create a national standard by which EMR companies will comply. The goal is to create a network across the country for medical information.
It’s more convent. The guys in the black trench coats don’t have to ask for your papers, they just point the RFID reader at you and they instantly know about that kidney infection you had last month. And before someone comments, I’m not the type that wears tinfoil hats. That doesn’t work anyway, you have to line your underwear with it.
I am an advocate of Electronic Medical Records and have worked in the industry several years. Hospitals often have their own redundant power systems to run things like life support machines and other medical equipment. If records were unavailable due to a power outage that isn’t a downfall of having electronic records. It is a downfall of Hospital administration and contingency planning. The real issue here isn’t that the records were unusable during ER or response care these records are often not important. The real tragedy here is that both paper and electronic records of patients were lost in this disaster. This will be millions of dollars of labs and other tests that will have to be redone for many patients. If electronic medical records were to be widely adopted and the privacy laws clarified healthcare clinics could setup redundant, off site backups that would allow these records not to be lost to natural disasters.
Um–I don’t think I want my medical records immediately available to any medical person, especially if they’re as accurate as credit records are. That is to say, not very.
The VA uses electronic medical records almost exclusively. The New Orleans VA was flooded up to waist deep on the 2nd floor, so their system was down. Within a couple of days backup tapes had been used to set up a mirror of the N.O. VA system at another VA and the records were accessible to VA users all across the country where evacuated veterans were going for care. Try THAT with your old-fashioned paper records! I hate to think what happens when a medical records room gets flooded in a paper-based hospital.
Healthcare is, I believe, the first industry to have data standards imposed by federal law, HIPAA. Sections of that law address security and privacy requirements for Electronic Medical Records. The complete crossover will take years more to accomplish, but already the electronic records, properly maintained, have shown themselves to be durable and redundant.
Maybe the best part of HIPAA is that it places control of access in the hands of the patient (at least in the hands of an educated consumer patient).
Take Care –
ZC