CASE STUDY CHAPTER 1 CASE 3 A NEW LOOK AT EMR

1-14 identify and describe the problem in this case.

•       High cost in health care industry.

–      US

•       Many issues with the sharing of medical data between difference systems.

–      No nationwide software standards for organizing and exchanging medical information

•       Potential conflict of interest for the insurance companies involved in the creation of health record systems.

–      Insurers not interested to have electronic system.

1-15 What people, organization, and technology factors are responsible for the difficulties in building electronic medical record systems? Explain your answer.

•       The currency problem

–      The cost of using electronic medical record is around $30,000 to $50,000 per doctor. In this case, it just only a small amount of funds are available up front. This would burden many providers.

•       Physicians and other health care workers is required

–      They need to retrain a doctor and it will waste a lot of time. A doctor may be spending a considerable of time entering your previous medical history to an electronic medical record.

1-16 What is the business, political, and social impact of not digitizing medical records (for individual physicians, hospitals, insurers, patients, and the U.S government)?

•       Difficult to get information or access of patient’s medical history, test results, diagnosis, treatments in a short time.

•       Impact the U.S government short term goals and a vision to have EMR systems in place by year 2015 as it could jeopardize their vision.

•       People expect advancement in medical technology with minimum reduced errors, non digitizing would risk the patient’s medical treatment as chance of errors are high.

1-17 What are the business and social benefits of digitizing medical recordkeeping?

•       Cost savings and increase health care quality

–      A physician would be able to immediately and directly access needed information from the EMR without having to pore through paper files.

•       Increase the effectiveness of medical recordkeeping

–      Electronic records will reduce medical errors and improve care, create less paperwork and provide quicker service.

–      Example: Veterans Affairs (VA) system .

1.18 Are electronic medical record systems a good solution to the problem of rising health care costs in the United States? Explain your answer.

•       Administrative tasks represent a significant percentage of health care costs.

•       Reduce medical errors and improve care, create less paperwork, and provide quicker service.

•       Doctor can communicate directly with pharmacy which is more convenient, cheaper for doctors and pharmacies, and safer for patients.