WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- The U.S. healthcare industry has been moving slowly toward electronic medical records and the thread weaving throughout this week's World Healthcare Congress was that it is time to pick up the pace.
Regardless of the forum or subject of discussion, the issue of technology arose time and time again with emphasis on how electronic records can provide better quality of care as well as reduce healthcare costs. An informal survey of Congress attendees at a keynote address found 45 percent think improving the quality of healthcare was the most important fix needed for the industry, while 33 percent said the biggest problem was cost control.
"The more you can go to e-claims or automate, the cost goes down substantially," Dr. Peter Kongstvedt, vice president of the managed care practice for Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, told United Press International.
For example, Kongstvedt said studies show companies have found every patient contact costs $60 if done on paper, $10 by phone, $2 through an automated system and 25 cents online.
Technology experts are seeing most hospitals and other health facilities begin to embrace such technology -- the buzz word is "connectivity" -- investing millions of dollars in systems to allow in-house or system-wide electronic record sharing and also to bring medical information online, making it easier for physicians and medical staff to coordinate and manage patient care from outside the healthcare facility.
Insurers also are putting many claim transactions and coverage data online for providers. The major challenge both sectors face, however, is ensuring security and confidentiality of the information at all times.
What has not yet developed to any significant extent, however, is allowing patients to access their own medical records and information. Most public sites contain very general health or corporate information and contact numbers.
The federal government has worked to set the foundation for electronic records. On Wednesday, President George W. Bush, in an address on healthcare in Washington, called for widespread use of the technology.
"Even though medicine is modern in the sense that we're making great new discoveries, it's kind of ancient when you think about how the records are kept," Bush said. "When you're still writing records down by hand and sharing information through files, it's not exactly a modern system. And we believe a lot of medical errors can be saved as a result of the use of proper technology -- and there will be cost savings to be had as well."
The new Medicare reform law passed at the end of last year, which brought prescription drugs into the senior health insurance program, calls for the Health and Human Services Department to make grants to help physicians implement electronic prescription drug programs.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 mandated that HHS establish standards and regulations governing electronic healthcare transactions -- much of which the department already has done in anticipation of the industry's adoption of the technology.
In July 2003, HHS signed a $34 million agreement with the College of American Pathologists to license the college's standardized medical vocabulary system and make it available free of charge throughout the United States. That is the beginning of a common medical language for a unified electronic medical records system.
The Institute of Medicine, as directed by HHS, also has proposed a standardized model of an electronic health record that eventually will be shared with industry.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a cardiologist, told the World Healthcare Congress that although the U.S. healthcare industry remains in the Dark Ages when it comes to adopting electronic records, "There is broad bipartisan interest in using (electronic records) to improve healthcare."
Sean Kenny, vice president global health for Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, told UPI that healthcare technology is a key issue outside of the United States as well.
European healthcare systems also are interested in many of the same issues as their U.S. counterparts -- cost, quality of care, error reduction and outcomes. Some, however, also have been slowing in ramping up, Kenny said. In some single-payer systems "governments are struggling to pay for it," he added. "The most basic kind of patient information is not automated."
Kenny said in single-payer systems extra money for healthcare in the past generally was funneled into areas that directly affect patient care.
Britain, however, now is investing billions of dollars into electronic records and the National Health Service has said the goal is to provide each person in the country with their own electronic health record by March 2005.
HIPAA also implemented complex and significant changes to increase privacy of healthcare information in the United States.
Even as sweeping as the HIPAA legislation has been, Kenny said the European Union has even stricter controls on privacy, which must be considered when moving information online and sharing it.
--
Ellen Beck covers healthcare issues for UPI Science News. E-mail [email protected]
