Guest Opinion: Secure, paperless medical records needed
by Terri Mitchell on Dec. 21, 2006, under OpinionWe have all been through this scenario: A new doctor’s visit means you also get new patient forms to detail your entire health history.
A trip to a specialist has you responsible for your records and X-rays being sent in time.
It is frustrating, and it is outdated.
Imagine instead an electronic and secure way for doctors to better care for you – a secure paperless system that saves time, money and even lives.
Electronic health records can provide your entire medical profile to any doctor you visit, drastically speed the process to receive lab and radiology results and help doctors treat you more with more timeliness and accuracy.
The good news is that Arizona is moving in that direction.
Last year, Gov. Janet Napolitano signed an executive order establishing the Arizona Health-e Connection Committee.
Within the past six months, the committee delivered a road map toward a future with electronic medical records by 2010.
Arizona’s entire health care community could ultimately exchange medical information statewide securely, reducing costs and errors.
Such errors most often occur in hospitals and nursing homes, where patients are prescribed multiple medications, according to a recent report by the National Institute of Medicine for the Federal Centers on Medicare and Medicaid.
On average, a hospitalized patient has at least one medication error a day, harming more than 1.5 million people a year, the report says.
In Tucson, health care technology is working to change that and improve the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System and University Medical Center.
They have replaced handwritten charts and prescriptions with electronic records.
Tucson Medical Center also is evolving, with plans to integrate an electronic prescription program within the next year.
Our continuing state- and city-level efforts point to the importance of interoperability within our health care systems.
As more and more regions become acclimated to medical technology, we in the IT industry must do our part to make the ultimate step a reality – connecting all health care information systems nationwide through a medical Internet called the National Health Information Network.
My company is collaborating with the national coordinator of health information technology at the Department of Health and Human Services as well as other companies to help develop a way for the data-sharing to work.
With the NHIN, exchanging critical health data will be easier, faster and more convenient. That’s key to responding to public health emergencies and providing better care for us in Tucson and when we travel anywhere throughout the U.S.
Currently, the roadblock is a lack of national industry standards on electronic health records.
Such standards will ensure that the various systems and programs used by hospitals, doctors, insurers and others in the health care industry will work together and share information swiftly, safely and securely.
We are looking into developing across-the-board standards that will allow all doctors, hospitals and patients to exchange information while protecting privacy.
We also are urging lawmakers to consider providing incentives for doctors and administrators who make the investment in a health information exchange.
Improving health care is the type of innovation that matters.
By working with other companies and lawmakers, we can unlock a new model of care within the next decade – a system that can be efficiently organized around the people who matter the most, patients.
Terri Mitchell is the senior location executive for IBM’s 1,700 employees in Tucson.
