Dr. James E. Sanders is a big believer of switching patient records from old paper files to sophisticated computer databases.
The electronic medical records system at the Department of Veterans Affairs' Kansas City Medical Center gives Sanders and his staff almost immediate access to medical histories, allowing them to seamlessly treat veterans from other states. But when patients aren't in the VA's system, it could mean hours or days before doctors have crucial information to properly care for patients.
"It's increasingly frustrating for us and other providers that it's difficult to find a workable interface," said Sanders, chief of staff for the Kansas City veterans hospital. "Our systems don't talk to each other."
Interoperability, or allowing providers to share records and view them from anywhere, is a requirement for facilities to receive some of the more than $17 billion in stimulus funding that the government is offering to encourage the adoption of electronic medical records. Congress will likely penalize providers who aren't doing so by 2014, cutting their Medicaid and Medicare payments, the Obama administration said.
But the debate over interoperability among health care providers, which has been going on for years, could take well beyond the 2014 timeframe to be solved, industry experts say.
"A private sector effort started 11 years ago and is still a going concern," said Carla Smith, executive vice president of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. "Every year they solve an X number of problems. They're eating the elephant one bite at a time."
For an integrated system to work, developers at different companies have to agree on how their hundreds of programs uniformly present information and connect with each other. For example, if one uses its own set of abbreviations, the information would be useless to a doctor who uses a different program.
As opposed to a "national" system, some envision a "network of networks" that would resemble the model used in the banking industry for customers to access their accounts through ATMs nationwide.
Studies have found that less than 10 percent of U.S. health care providers are using electronic medical records.
Sanders, for instance, has access to one of the nation's most expansive computerized record systems, allowing VA staff to securely access patient data  from 1,400 VA hospitals and clinic across the U.S. -- but that benefit ends at the medical center's doors. When a patient isn't in that system, Sanders said his staff has to revert to receiving the records by fax and then scanning them into the system. (continued...)
© 2009 Associated Press/AP Online under contract with YellowBrix. All rights reserved.
|
Rackspace: It makes a difference when you focus on support.
House Lawmakers Push Ban on Peer-to-Peer Software
GAO: Los Alamos Computer Security Has Weaknesses
Computer Security Firm Fortinet Plans IPO This Week
Flat Shipments Hurt Dell Despite Increased Earnings
New Pogoplug 'Personal Cloud' Does Social Networking
Apple Tablet Rumored Delayed as Publisher Gears Up
Smartphones: A Bigger Target for Security Threats
FBI Says Hackers Targeting Law Firms, PR Companies