It’s been three years since Congress approved a nearly $30 billion plan to digitize health care records, yet much of the health care industry is still drowning in paper.
The Bipartisan Policy Center released a 43-page report detailing the gaps in health IT implementation–the biggest concern being a delay in getting the various systems to be able to talk to one another.
The government initiative, passed as part of the 2009 financial stimulus package, gives doctors, hospitals and other providers funding incentives to switch to digital record systems. That effort is also considered one of the key elements to overhauling the country’s health care system. Proponents say that electronic records will reduce medical errors and help cut costs by reducing duplicative tests and care. It can also provide enhanced population data to find out the most effective procedures.
Part of that law, known as the HITECH Act, called for health care systems to be able to share patient information. But so far, the new report notes that “the level of electronic health information exchange is very low in the U.S.” The effort has been slowed, the report notes, partially because of federal delays in setting standards for how systems should be able to communicate with one another.
The report identified six barriers to successfully implementing the technology around the country and made recommendations in each of those areas. The barriers include privacy and security concerns, a lack of consumer engagement and the number of changes that providers are juggling as a result of the health care law. The report suggest that doctors, hospitals, and other providers might be more inclined to embrace the digital exchange of patient information if they had a business incentive to do so.
The report notes that other causes of delays include a lack of enthusiasm among consumers, who often have misperceptions about how electronic records work and security concerns. Previous research, as the report highlights, shows that “health information exchange has a positive impact on both the cost and quality of care.”
As a new or experienced medical staff leader, you have probably recognized that you need skills you were not taught in medical school. These include the ability to build consensus among departments, to navigate legal challenges and to hold critical conversations concerning an impaired colleague, as well as how to run a productive committee meeting, link PI data with privileging decisions, or manage a physician who exhibits disruptive behavior.
“A slow cultural shift over the past 20 years led by television — from “St. Elsewhere” to “ER” — has been humanizing society’s view of the practice of medicine,” said John Maa, MD, an assistant professor in the UCSF Department of Surgery and SFMS board member. “… As physicians, we must now harness the power of storytelling to enlighten Capitol Hill to enact new laws” to support emergency health care personnel.
“I was amazed by the response of the nation and even the world,” Maa said.
Baer, a longtime advocate for social change, has repeatedly witnessed the difference storytelling can make.
