Hospitals are getting super-sized. Waiting room chairs are being built with wrought iron for heavy patients. Wheelchairs and beds are made to sustain extra weight. And toilets are being mounted to the floor, not the wall. In response to America's obesity epidemic, health-care facilities nationwide are making accommodations to make sure they can take care of their heaviest patients.
Electronic medical records are not working like they should—or could—according to a new analysis in Health Affairs that revisited previous predictions for the EMR revolution and found disappointing results, in terms of efficiency,saved costs, and patient care. The practical concerns pointed out by the study include ease of use and ability to share information across systems. But another important metric—the corollary to questions like Would You Want to See Everything Your Doctor Writes About You?"—is, What would you, the patient, do with that information provided you were granted access?
With less than two years to go before penalties kick in from the federal government for hospitals that are not using electronic health records, new data shows just 1.8 percent have operational systems. The latest data linked here from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), based in Chicago, shows just 1.8 percent of hospitals have a "complete electronic medical record" that includes data warehouses and data continuity with the emergency department.
Over the past decade, nudged by new federal regulations, hospitals and medical offices around the country have been converting scribbled doctors' notes to electronic records. Although the chief goal has been to improve efficiency and cut costs, a disappointing report published last week by the RAND Corp. found that electronic health records actually may be raising the nation's medical bills.
Every lost laptop, stolen smartphone and missing thumb drive containing health information confirms the dark reality of an industry disconcertingly tone deaf when it comes to data encryption and protection. Many healthcare organizations have yet to institute security practices that financial services companies, for instance, put in place two decades ago—a fact that leaves them increasingly vulnerable to the large-scale data thievery that organized crime has perpetrated in other realms.
A nagging issue for healthcare reformers is the disincentive for many providers to adopt innovative approaches to care that improve health and cut costs. If you're paid a fee for each service you provide in your office, why would you invest in technologies and procedures that led to fewer billable services? One reason is to achieve better results, and that's good enough for some providers. But the Medicare program is supplying another rationale. It started cracking down last year on hospitals that readmit too many patients soon after discharging them. That penalty has led hospitals to pay more attention to technologies that can keep track of patients' progress at home, according to Anthony Shimkin, a senior marketing director for Qualcomm Life.