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Electronic Medical Records: Lessons Learned
Three of Seattle’s largest medical centers (Harborview Medical Center, Swedish Medical Center and Virginia Mason Medical Center) are located on First Hill, or “Pill Hill.”
Associated Press | AP Online
August 11, 2009
SEATTLE — Atop a hill in Seattle, three of Washington state’s pre-eminent hospital systems sit within blocks of one another, equipped with state-of-the-art electronic medical-record systems that track test results, send warnings about dangerous drug interactions and provide medical histories.
A patient crossing the street from one hospital to another would be wise to take paper records, however: The systems, made by different manufacturers, can’t talk to each other.
For much of the country, linking the electronic records of doctors, hospitals and clinics remains an elusive goal. Even in tech-savvy Seattle, “no one is quite there yet,” said Jim Bender, the medical director for health information at the city’s Virginia Mason Medical Center.
Among the reasons: cost, computer systems that aren’t compatible with rival systems, resistance among physicians and privacy concerns. Overcoming the obstacles, Bender said, “will take federal will and money.”
The money is on the way. Under the federal economic stimulus legislation, the government plans to spend $32 billion on health-information technology over the next 10 years, and projects $13 billion in savings by doing so. Most of the money will go to doctors and hospitals.
There are risks, however. Unless the money is doled out carefully, it “may go down a rathole,” said Janice Newell, the chief information officer at Swedish Medical Center, another major Seattle hospital.
That’s one of the lessons from the city’s experience.
PhillyXTech
3 months ago
388 comments
This is exactly what I have been saying for the last few years to those friends family and co-workers who believe that for some reason electronic records are already perfect and there is simply a resistance to abandoning paper.
The simple fact is why throw the paper out in the first place when you have to print it out anyway.
We need the same type of big balls government intervention utilized by FDR and other presidents/ lawmakers who used the central government to steamroll the whiny-braying cries of special interest groups who stood in the way of progress because it hurt their bottom line (I'm talking to you Microsoft. GE and Seimans)
Untill someone makes them give up the code to get them all to talk seamlessly, Universal electronic medical records are a pipedream.