Archive for April, 2009

In February, as part of the $800 billion economic stimulus package, Congress approved $19.5 billion to jump-start health care’s digital revolution by providing incentives to doctors and hospitals that take Medicare and Medicaid patients — which 90% do.

In the first year of incentives, hospitals could receive up to $1.5 million, while doctors would qualify for about $40,000 over several years.

The New England Journal of Medicine, found that 4 percent of physicians had extensive, fully functional electronic records systems, while 13 percent had more basic systems.

Those numbers leave a LOT of physicians on the side of the electronic records debate without any sort of system in place.

Starting on the move to Electronic Medical Records doesn’t have to be as daunting as some in the media would portray. Simple systems, the mere conversion of your patient charts to electronic images and storage in a basic system, are quick, cheap, and best of all, simple to use.

Most physicians in their own practice or within a group practice have a wall or two or three of patient charts. Many charts contain nothing more than 8 1/2″ x 11″ pieces of paper. Typically they are ordered in descending date order, with the most recent visit on top. When retrieved, the staff locate by perhaps a patient chart number or even just patient last name. This basic structure can EASILY be recreated in electronic format. Most solutions even allow additions to the patient chart without having to print the page from the computer system – such as lab reports and the like which are transmitted electronically or through a fax machine.

We all know, starting a new project can be discouraging but honestly electronic document management systems today can be REALLY SIMPLE.

This development is exciting for everyone; imagine calling your doctor after hours, they are at home but yet can retrieve YOUR patient chart without delay via a secure connection to their electronic records repository. I, for one, would appreciate this. When you or your child is sick, you don’t want to wait, you want an answer right away.

The concerns people have with respect to confidentiality and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) are warranted and must be considered prior to deployment of any system that would make available a patient’s medical information via a computerized system, whether it be locally accessed or via the Internet. Most software solutions for document management have extensive security capabilities with controls of access down to the specific document type. Office staff may be able to retrieve the financial portion only while the nurse can only access your past medical information. These systems are very powerful and highly customizable.

As 2009 progresses, now is the time for physicians and medical facilities to start looking at what they are doing to meet these mandated requirements. Time flies fast, especially in the world of electronic document management.