Why Doctors Are Drowning in Paperwork
Imagine walking into a doctor’s office that appears to be the model of efficiency. You walk up to the window and a staff person looks up from their desk, barricaded by file folders, and greets you. As you take a seat your eyes scan the wall of folders, which are bulging with health information for every patient in the practice—lab and radiology reports, hospital records, and notes scribbled by doctors. Some of these records are recent, some date back twenty or more years, and most will rarely be read. Hard to believe in this day and age, but this up-to-date office runs by telephone and paper—as do the majority of medical practices in the state. The computers you see are usually for billing purposes. Rarely is there an electronic system for sharing medical knowledge and integrating patient care within the practice, never mind with outside doctors. . .but all that is about to change.
A Case for Continuity of Care
Most of us only hear from our primary care physician when we call them. Everyone knows that keeping the lines of communication maintained between doctor visits is as crucial as face-to-face time, especially if you’re dealing with a chronic condition or complicated drug therapy. Physicians and patients are frustrated by a paper-based system where patient monitoring and personal follow up is all but impossible. Time-pressured, episodic visits simply do not work, especially as we age and our medical needs become more complex. Your health care team needs to be able to focus on your wellness between office visits.
The Technology Connection
Often busy doctors in the same practice do not have the time to communicate with each other. The fact is, the easier it is for physicians to communicate with each other and patients, the better health care will be for all of us. Health information technology systems will make this possible. Electronic health records will allow physicians who you authorize, to instantly access your medical history, easily consult with specialists, and instantly access knowledge, diagnostic or medical services at local or remote locations.
Technology may not be the panacea for all that ails our health care system, but it’s a launching pad for accelerating change.
There are those who point at the obstacles to creating a statewide system for an electronic health information exchange—like how do you get opposing interests around the table and working together for the collective good? How do you make electronic health records affordable for physicians? And most importantly, how do you build trust and a sense of community and protect privacy and security? These are valid concerns. Learn how the Statewide Health Information Exchange network is being designed and built.
Here’s the action we’re taking to lower the barriers:
1. Put Rhode Islanders at the center of the design process. Rarely do consumers get the opportunity to strongly influence the design of a federally funded system with such far reaching impacts. Yet the state Department of Health, which is project administrator for the statewide Health Information Exchange is endeavoring to do just that. The Health Department has formed a unique public/private partnership with the Rhode Island Quality Institute, which provides governance for establishing and managing the support structure necessary to build the health information exchange.
To make sure what we do is in the best interest of the health care user, we have formed a Consumer Advisory Committee. In addition, our Legal and Policy Committee focuses on resolving data stewardship and security issues. Bottom-line, we want to ensure that electronic health records are secure, easily accessible, and useful tools for consumers. The health care user must be in control of what information is shared and know who is looking at their information.
2. Provide economic incentives and support to medical practices to facilitate their participation. Learn how Rhode Island doctors are uniting to lower the cost of electronic health records, and how medical practices locally are learning to adapt to this new technology
3. Leverage relationships amongst the Institute’s stakeholders and alliance partners. Our diverse stakeholders have worked long and hard to reach consensus on many complex issues so we can create a health care system that works. From our inception our vision has been to electronically connect all retail pharmacies and all prescribers across this state. In 2003 we joined forces with SureScripts, Inc. of Alexandra, VA. Now we are close to bringing the vision of statewide e-prescribing to a reality, and Rhode Island has won an award designating it as the number one state in the nation for advancing electronic prescribing.
4. Build a prototype for the Health Information Exchange. Governmental agencies, laboratory, pharmacy, and hospital networks are using data from their organizations to test the prototype. Learn more.
