Some Medical Records to Go Electronic

By Jim Stafford, The Oklahoman

Jun. 12–Oklahoma has been selected as one of 12 “communities” nationwide to participate in an electronic medical records demonstration project that will be launched Monday in a presentation at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

Kerry Weems, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, will announce the award of the project in a 10 a.m. ceremony along with Oklahoma Health Secretary Dr. Michael Crutcher and other community leaders.

The project offers financial incentives to doctors in each of the demonstration sites for using electronic health records in their practices. The five-year project and communities were announced this week by U.S. Health Secretary Mike Leavitt.

What would doctors receive? Up to 1,200 doctors with small- and medium-size primary care practices across the nation will receive Medicare incentives to embrace “certified” Electronic Health Records, the agency said in a news release. Doctors may earn up to $58,000 each or $290,000 per practice for the five-year duration of the project.

“The use of electronic health records and of health information technology as a whole has the ability to transform the way health care is delivered in our nation,” Leavitt said. “We believe that EHRs can help physicians deliver better, more efficient care for their patients, in part by reducing medical errors.”

Leavitt participated in an electronic health care forum with about 50 Oklahoma health care leaders in early April at the Oklahoma State Medical Association headquarters.

Focusing on patient care In a news release, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said that the project should reduce errors and improve health outcomes for an estimated 3.6 million Americans.

Last month, a group of 10 Oklahoma City area hospitals announced a project in which they would share electronic records of patients who seek treatment in their emergency rooms.

The demonstration project actually focuses on “quality of care and patient outcomes,” said Steve Mattachione, a professor at the University of Oklahoma College of Public Health.

“There is an economic and financial and business side of this, but clearly there is a clinical side about quality and outcomes, and I think doctors embrace that,” Mattachione said. “Cost savings isn’t the immediate goal. This is really about patient care.”

Deresa Claybrook, a Moore-based health care consultant, said she supports the move to electronic health records provided that patient privacy rights can be protected.

“I’m for it because I was involved with the governor’s task force that was wrapped up and involved with the Department of Human Services,” Claybrook said. “I think it would be an honor for us to be a leader and in the forefront of this to see how it’s going to go.”

Keeping records updated Physicians and doctors also have some liability concerns and certain laws need to be changed to protect them, Claybrook said.

Another concern is that of the patients, who may see at a doctor at a hospital emergency room and then at a clinic a week later. Is the patient responsible for updating the medical records at each location if electronic records aren’t universal?

“Where is the patient involved in the process?” she said. “How does that impact the patient? If we fully had an (electronic health record) and Norman Regional can then communicate and talk to that minor emergency clinic, then great. I think an EHR is where we need to be.”

Claybrook offers a product called Health Care Tracker for patients who want to arm themselves with their own digital record of their health care records.

“My product kind of fits the gap, because we’re not there (yet),” she said. “We’re still talking about task force and pilot projects.”

In the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services news release, the agency said the electronic health records project would be implemented in two phases.

It will begin working with partners in four Phase 1 communities in the coming months to develop site-specific recruitment strategies, with recruitment of physicians to begin the fall. For Phase II sites, the activities will begin in 2009.

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