Electronic Health Record and the back side

I am so excited to see so many hospitals, clinics and physicians offices transitioning to the electronic health record (EHR). As a consultant, I definitely see the advantages for the practices on a daily basis. The goal of the electronic health record is to place comprehensive health information at the fingertips of any medical provider who treats that person. Rather than chasing paper records, physicians, nurses and other staff members or even consultants like myself can access the EHR from any department or facility where the patients receive care. The EHR allows physicians and staff members to:
• Document interactions with patients.
• View medical histories and insurance information
• Make referrals
• Order laboratory tests and view test results
• Send electronic prescription requests to pharmacies (reducing the risk that hard-to-read handwriting will lead to medical errors)
• Flag potentially harmful drug interactions

It also provides physicians with “decision support” tools, such as clinical guidelines and checks for drug interactions; and generates printed post-visit summaries for patients, among other benefits.
While these are the advantages to the electronic health record on the front side, there are areas of concern on the back side. As a consultant, who conducts record reviews, I see a lot of waste. Physicians are documenting in a handwritten format and also electronically. I am not sure why they are doing that. Are the physicians still not comfortable with their systems? Is it just that hold habits are hard to break. This is a challenge for me as an auditor I have to scan that information into a data base for review. The problem comes with trying to get from one system to another. Most of the time, I am printing progress notes and other forms from one system out on paper and then scanning to another system for review. At times it feels like I am reinventing the record. This can all better served with a flash drive. The flash drive can really be a great tool. The flash drive can cut down on the re-printing of a record and make it to where two systems can talk to each other.

Just the other day, I was reviewing some past articles on the electronic health record and I come across one that was referencing the original content of what President Bush had envisioned for the Electronic Health Record. This article that I was reading was dated, April 26, 2004. We are now in 2009 five years later. The article read something like this according to a White House document released Monday, the president “believes that innovations in electronic health records and the secure exchange of medical information will help transform healthcare in America.” The briefing memo says Bush envisions “a dramatically changed system” in which patients carry their healthcare information on a keychain and can authorize any physician or clinician to access their full records electronically. Finally the system would serve as a sentinel to alert public health authorities of a possible disease outbreak or bio terror attack. The ultimate goal is to allow medical information to be stored and shared electronically while assuring privacy and security.

I think President Bush was right on target with envisioning a way to carry health care information on a keychain. Even though he was referencing the patients, this concept is great fro a auditor or consultant. I guess I just didn’t think that I would be using the flash drive like that as a health care information management specialist. I am already using a flash drive for my own health care information called the health care tracker but now when I look in my purse or brief case I have several flash drives. The flash drives are encrypted and password protected. The flash drive is definitely the tool for the back side. How do you feel about the fact that the flash drive can be used this way?

Tags: EHR, electronic health record, flash drive, health care, health care tracker, personal health record