Medical-Data Network Examined at Summit
Jul. 27–Dr. David Brailer laid out the problems he sees with health care in America, including an “unmitigated epidemic of medical errors.”
Costs remain out of control, and consumers are frustrated, he added, speaking Tuesday to nearly 500 health care professionals from across the state.
But Brailer proposed a solution: an information technology revolution in health care.
Brailer is the health information technology coordinator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He was named the most powerful person in health care by Modern Health Care magazine.
He was among several national experts who attended a summit to launch Pennsylvania’s effort to convert to electronic medical records and use information technology to improve health care and cut costs.
Last year, President Bush set a goal of creating a national electronic network of health care data within 10 years.
Pennsylvania is working toward that goal, and the summit, which drew representatives of nearly 200 health care organizations, was the first major gathering.
A major goal of an electronic network is to allow people’s medical records to be instantly available no matter where they are in the United States. That technology could bring additional benefits, including eliminating handwriting errors with prescriptions, automatic detection of potential drug-interaction problems and recognizing disease outbreaks.
The U.S. lags behind several other counties in using information technology in health care, one expert said.
“We live in a nonwired health care delivery system, and, frankly, it’s embarrassing,” said Dr. Blackford Middleton, a physician who has devoted much of his career to developing electronic medical records.
Middleton said it’s believed that information technology could reduce health care costs by $150 billion annually. But there are major obstacles, and those accounted for much discussion Tuesday.
A lack of uniform standards in health care technology is one problem. Hospitals and private doctors will be afraid to make major investments until they are sure the technology will deliver as promised and be capable of sharing information.
Security of private medical information is another major concern.
Brailer said the federal government is willing to lead the effort but won’t create the network. He said that must be done at the regional level.
Creating the software and equipment needed for a national network represents a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs, Brailer said.
The Pennsylvania eHealth Initiative is being organized by the Pennsylvania Medical Society, the Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania and Quality Insights of Pennsylvania, which works with the federal government to improve the quality of Medicare in Pennsylvania.
Dr. Donald Wilson, medical director for Quality Insights, said it’s reasonable to expect that much of an electronic network in Pennsylvania can be in place in five years. He said the initiative is in the process of creating a board of directors and is meeting every two months.
Dr. William Lander, president of the medical society, said the cost of converting to electronic medical records — expected to be roughly $20,000 for each physician’s practice — is beyond the financial reach of most doctors, and they will need financial help.
Wilson had no estimate of the total cost for the electronic capabilities touted by Brailer. He noted that only about 11 percent of the projected savings are expected to go to health care providers; most would go to businesses and the government.
Therefore, employers and insurers must be willing bear much of the cost of the transition, he said.
Employers, which pay much of America’s health care bill through employee insurance benefits they offer, wonder why health care, unlike so many other industries, has yet to be revolutionized by technology, said Suzanne Delbanco, executive director of the Leapfrog Group, an organization of about 170 large businesses that use their buying clout to improve health care.
“It’s the cost of doing business, and they can’t understand why health care is so removed from that obligation,” she said.
Delbanco said electronic entries of prescriptions and physicians’ orders is at the top of Leapfrog’s agenda for improving hospital care, but only 6 percent of hospitals have such a system.
Wilson noted that only about 15 percent of physician practices use electronic medical records.
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