Hospital’s struggle illustrates health IT woes
Filed under: Health data, Hospitals, Hot Health Headline
The University of California San Francisco Medical Center has written off more than a third of the $50 million it has spent on a system to digitize patients’ medical records, according to an article by AHCJ member Fred Schulte for the Huffington Post Investigative Fund and American University’s Investigative Reporting Workshop.
The hospital started the project more than five years ago but after “persistent technical headaches,” it is has terminated the contractor and will start over on part of the project.
The costly setback pointedly illustrates the challenges health professionals face trying to meet a government mandate to bring American medicine into the computer age.
Doctors and technology analysts are less than enthusiastic about products now available. “Early reports from some American and European hospitals, they say, suggest that some technology may prove unreliable and could even pose safety problems for patients.”
While critics are concerned about patient safetly, U.S. manufacturers say no injuries or deaths can be attributed to software failure. However, as Schulte points out, “companies manufacturing health information technology systems are under no obligation to report injuries resulting from software malfunctions to the government.”
Schulte then cites a number of examples that point to failures or problems with software systems.
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Survey reveals how much patient privacy is at risk
Fred Schulte and Emma Schwartz of the Huffington Post Investigative Fund report on a survey in which 75 percent of health organization say patients’ medical records were put at “risk of improper disclosure.”
The study, done for the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, also revealed that half of the people surveyed said they had “no plan in place to respond to security threats and many of them indicated that they are spending ‘little additional resources’ to combat the problem.”
While the federal stimulus package includes provisions to enhance the security and privacy of medical information, the survey found that many hospitals do not have and do not use tools to encrypt the data when it is stored or when it is sent over the Internet.
Schulte discussed the report on NPR’s Weekend Edition. The survey also was the subject of an iHealthBeat special report, featuring a health information technology officer, a representative of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, the HHS deputy director of health information privacy and a patient advocate.
The full report is available from ID Experts but does require free registration.
Doctors face obstacles in transition to costly EMRs
Filed under: Government, Health care reform, Hot Health Headline
In his American Journey blog, the Wall Street Journal’s Andy Jordan considered the impact of stimulus funds on the health-care system’s expensive and time-consuming transition to electronic medical records in terms of physicians he encountered in his cross-country travels.
In rural Alabama, Dr. Regina Benjamin switched to EMRs after losing paper records to a combination of hurricanes and fires.
“When a patient or pharmacy calls at night or on a weekend, I do not have to rely on memory. I can access the chart from any computer, at home, from the hospital, from my hotel room when traveling.
This prevents errors and I can give better care. I can also quickly look at trends and patterns, pick up things earlier than if I had to look thru paper charts.” She was able to fund her conversion through donations and foundation support.
In Cambridge, Ohio Jordan met Dr. Patrick Goggin, who he said spent about $300,000 to convert to electronic medical records five years ago. Jordan recorded a four-and-a-half minute video showing the Dr. Goggin’s system in action. Jordan also spoke with Dr. Goggin’s colleague, Dr. David Ray.
“Advantages are not quite there as far as outweighing the costs,” (Dr. Ray) says.
“The technology is probably just not quite there yet for most solo practitioners and small practices to implement such a system.”
In the Minneapolis Star-Tribune Kate Levinson reports on growing demand for centers to store this medical data and on a study that found mid-size Midwestern cities to be among the most attractive to the medical data storage industry.
Steve Lohr of The New York Times reports that the obstacles to a transition to electronic medical records are daunting. Experts say that how local organizations help doctors in small offices adopt electronic records will be crucial to success. Lohr explains “regional health I.T. extension centers,” called for in Obama’s budget proposal that has been submitted to Congress.
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Health Journalism 2010, AHCJ's annual conference, features a world-class program with story ideas, sources, stronger reporting skills, chances to meet newsmakers and network with other journalists.
- Health and education: Covering these intersecting beats
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- Shortened Lives: How location, lifestyle affect health
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- AHCJ calls for better information from Joint Commission Web site
