A matter of life and death
From paper to digital: revolutionizing health records
It seems intuitive in this
day and age that we have
electronic health records. Most of us assume our medical records
are digitized to save us time down the road and help our doctors
track our medical history. Americans would probably be surprised
that a mere 14 percent of doctors in the United States use electronic
medical records.
Jennifer and Randy Queen are all too familiar with the issues of both
types of recording-keeping. In 1997 they welcomed their daughter Courtney
into the world. Courtney was born with DiGeorge Syndrome, a rare disease
caused by a large deletion from chromosome 22. Evident at birth, DiGeorge
causes medical problems with the cardiac, pulmonary, endocrine, and
immune systems. Courtney spent the first six months of her life in
the hospital. At 10 years old, she had been hospitalized approximately
24 times and had undergone more than 400 medical procedures.
For the first years of Courtney’s treatments at Vanderbilt University
Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, the hospital relied on the
typical paper medical records. The Queens maintained their own medical
notes for Courtney and constantly transported them to various medical
facilities. With no easy way to provide her medical history in the
case of an emergency, they would have to explain Courtney’s
situation all over again. This made the family reluctant to travel.
Even at Vanderbilt, the Queens
constantly completed new forms and repeated information. The problems
with this record-keeping system were never more evident than when
a procedure was delayed for more than four hours while doctors and
nurses waited for Courtney’s
lengthy file to arrive from another hospital floor. Finally, the
records arrived thanks to an aide transporting the soaring stack
of papers and manila folders on a wheelchair.
In 2005 Vanderbilt moved into
new facilities featuring an advanced health IT infrastructure. The
buildings and medical departments are now connected through a single
computerized electronic medical record system. “Now, as long as we stay in the Vandy-zone, all of our
information is available at the click of a button,” Jennifer
Queen said.
Unlike Vanderbilt, most facilities
systems’ are still paper-based
and force doctors to waste thousands of hours and billions of dollars
every year on redundant tests and duplicative history-taking. Digitized
health records could catch doctors up with even their newest patients
in a matter of minutes and guide them toward more efficient, useful,
and cost-effective time management.
Health IT does more than just
speed the check-in process for a patient. The information available
through Vanderbilt’s health IT system
contains Courtney Queen’s medications and test results. It also
contains specific details about the type of care she requires, down
to the level of difficulty she has with IV sticks, which is recalled
instantly. Today, the Queens’ know the medical personnel in
every department understand Courtney needs a special IV and no longer
worry if the doctor or nurse has the information they require to
effectively help Courtney.
The value of digitized health
records, like Vanderbilt’s, is
not lost on health care policy makers. Legislation has been introduced
in Congress and momentum appears to be building for the federal government
to take a leadership role in the transition from paper medical records
to health IT, which would allow more health facilities to convert
to health IT.
Due to the multitude of digitizing
programs available, American doctors have been reluctant to make
the switch to digitalized records – as
opposed to 90 percent of doctors in Sweden and 60 percent in the
United Kingdom. The key concern about health It is that of patient
privacy and fears that unauthorized computer hackers would be able
to access and see personal health information. To that, advocates
of health IT note that there is often nothing stopping unauthorized
persons from looking at paper medical records.
Another challenge is that
of health care providers, even those with online records, having
systems that can communicate from provider to provider. That seems
to be a bigger challenge, as different health care providers don’t
always have compatible technology.
Federal leadership can establish
interoperable standards and create the incentives necessary for doctors,
hospitals and insurance companies to move toward electronic records,
and integrate health IT into government health programs. This would
allow every family to feel the same ease in any medical facility
that the Queens feel at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “We’ve seen firsthand what an amazing difference
electronic medical records can make to a family’s life. These
technologies should be available to everyone,” Jennifer Queen
said. It is time for Washington to take a cue and place health IT
at the top of our national agenda. ![]()
Source: Health IT Now!
Coalition
Editor’s note: Although
many Minnesota health care providers still do not provide online
records and customer accessibility to their own records online, there
are a number of options available for those seeking the convenience
of having personal health records online. Some web site providers
offer clients the option of downloading personal medical files. Others
require that information be keyboarded in.
The digitized records
can include everything from one’s complete
medical history to daily medication schedules. These provide an invaluable
service to the disability community, their family members and medical
service providers. Both Google and MSN have launched password-protected
sites where users can post or download their own medical information.
MSN’s HealthVault service, www.healthvault.com launched in
fall 2007, Google Health launched a few months later at www.google.com.
Other sites to check out include www.healthrecordsonline.com and
www.ihealthrecord.org
