mauri.ni...@gmail.com wrote: > Hi Gabriele and others, > > I just read an article on Time mobile site about health care records > in USA (see below). They have managed to implement electronic system > fully onlyn 1.5% of hospitals in USA and only 8-11% had basic features > implemented. The softwares between different hospitals do not talk to > each other, sosts are very high to fix the problems etc etc. > > I think we all should return to the original idea of Care2x, that > Elpidio had early one. We should work together to have a software > covering most aspects of the hospital computerization needs. If we all > go our own way nobody will have capacity enough. > I have also looked other open source softwares every now and then and > it seems Care2x still defends itself as the having most features. I do > not think easy solutions are waiting elsewhere. > > Mark has had may good ideas on this forum. We shoud have simple core > product to which different requriments could be added easily. Like > core Linux or new Windows 7. With fresh ideas and developers sticking > together this project could be revitalized again. > > Mauri Niemi > > > > Hi Elpidio and all the other careers... > > I've finally tested the SVN release (the 2.6) of Care2x and we (me and > my friends) found that there is too much work to do before we can > propose this one here in Italy. With Andrea and Fabrizio we are > thinking to work on a different product than this one available via > SVN....... > > Electronic Health Records: What's Taking So Long? > By Jeffrey Kluger > Prescription pads, clipboards and patient charts are so 20th century. > In the era of CT scans, gene-splicing and stem-cell breakthroughs, > handwritten record-keeping feels about as outmoded as the fluoroscope. > It's more than just strangely retro; it's fantastically expensive. > > Health care in the U.S. costs a jaw-dropping $2 trillion annually, or > more than $6,600 for every man, woman and child in the country. > Streamlining the industry by eliminating medical errors, labor costs > and general clunkiness caused by paperwork alone could save an > estimated $300 billion each year, according to the national > coordinator for health information technology under former President > George W. Bush. The consensus, of course, is that we must go > paperless: link hospitals, doctors' offices and clinics via an > interactive digital grid that allows patient histories, test results > and other data to be called up at a keystroke and transmitted > anywhere. Hospitals have been slowly converting to electronic health > records (EHR) for several years, but with health-care reform, at last, > high on Washington's to-do list, President Barack Obama has called for > $19 billion in stimulus money to speed up the process. Before > policymakers can determine how best to spend that money, however, they > need to know how the digital switchover is going so far and what's > holding things up. (Read about why going digital may increase > health-care costs.) > That was the goal of a study published March 25 in the New England > Journal of Medicine, led by a team of researchers from the Harvard > School of Public Health and Massachusetts General Hospital. What the > investigators found was not encouraging. Currently, only about 1 in 10 > hospitals nationwide has adopted even basic electronic record-keeping > -- and when you look inside that one statistic, the situation gets > bleaker. > > The investigators began by sending questionnaires to roughly 4,500 > general hospitals around the country, asking about their use of 32 > different features of health information technology -- including > electronic patient histories, doctors' notes, lab and X-ray results, > prescriptions, drug alerts and nursing orders. "We sent out the survey > to the hospital CEOs," says health-policy expert Catherine DesRoches > of Massachusetts General Hospital, who participated in the study, "and > about 63% responded." (Read "The Move to Digital Medical Records > Begins in Tampa.") > > Not many of those 3,000 respondents had much they could boast about*. > Only 1.5% reported having a comprehensive EHR system in place in all > clinical units. Another 8% to 11% had a basic system -- defined as > having eight to 10 of the 32 possible EHR functionalities in at least > one unit of the hospital. Even one of the most straightforward > functions -- computerized drug-prescribing -- had been implemented in > just 17%. Physicians' notes -- which can be confusing at best and > flat-out illegible at worst -- had gone digital in just 12%.* The only > bright spot in the findings was computerized results-viewing, which > allows doctors and nurses to call up lab results onscreen instead of > having to wait for them to be delivered by hand; that time-saving > upgrade had been implemented by more than 75% of the hospitals surveyed. > > "That suggests that we do have a good place to start," says lead > author Dr. Ashish Jha of the Harvard School of Public Health. > Capitalizing on that start, however, requires identifying the main > factors that are stopping hospitals from adopting EHR, and Jha and his > colleagues tried to do that as well. > > The biggest obstacle -- no surprise -- was cost, cited by 74% of the > hospitals that hadn't gone digital. A small hospital might have to > spend a few million dollars to buy and install new technology; a large > one could require hundreds of millions. And more than 30% of hospitals > had doubts about ever getting a return on that investment. The > government's bailout money helps, but $19 billion divided among just > the 3,000 hospitals that answered the survey would mean a little more > than $6 million apiece -- plenty for some, not nearly enough for > others. (See the most common hospital mishaps.) > > Another major obstacle was simply resistance from physicians. Harried > doctors, who barely have enough time to see all their patients and > manage all their cases, do not want to bother with the added chore of > learning a new computer system, no matter what the promise of its > virtues. Past research suggests doctors are afraid that EHR could > reduce their clinical productivity. > > "Change is hard," says John Glaser, vice president of Partners > HealthCare System, which responded to the survey. "Human beings > struggle with that, and physicians are no different." > > But most human beings can be persuaded, especially with cash. The > study found that among hospitals that had implemented digital records > -- which tended to be teaching hospitals and larger hospitals in urban > areas -- 82% had received additional reimbursement for EHR use, and > 75% got financial incentives for adopting the system. It also helped > to have adequately trained staff and available tech support, which the > authors suggest we'll need more of to make progress -- particularly > when it comes to the exchange of health information between hospitals. > Try getting any two offices in any industry to integrate their > computer systems so that all the software can talk to all the other > software, and now imagine doing the same thing over a network of > thousands of hospitals. > > Of course the larger, more immediate problem is the 47 million or so > Americans who lack any health insurance or access to health care and > the other 250 million who struggle with care that keeps getting more > expensive and less efficient. No one would argue that electronic > health records alone will fix that, but few people deny that it's a > critical first step. "It will require a whole lot of leadership and a > whole lot of skill," says Glaser. Americans demanded no less when they > went to the polls in November. Now it's up to Washington to deliver. >
I concur. We have an African proverb saying : 'If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together' -- - Ubuntu philosophy - "I am what I am because of who we all are" _________________ University Computing Centre - 'Professionalism, Customer Care and Technological foresight' ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensign option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects _______________________________________________ Care2002-developers mailing list Care2002-developers@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/care2002-developers
