The integration that is more likely to occur is specialists sharing an
EHR and possibily extending it into hospital care with electronic
discharges as I have mentioned previously.
How is that integration? I would have thought the last thing specialists
want would be to take on the role of the GP. There's too much heartache
and not enough money.
We are not trying to be GPs - not that clever, most of us are happy
being experts in one organ. Problem is patients insist on having more
than one organ dysfunctional concurrently !
The major problem facing current specialist care is the patient ends up
like a tennis ball bouncing around between specialists. Each thinks
they are very clever - orders duplicate tests etc and the patient ends
up confused, bruised and over irradiated.
Our model is that you come to one place and get sorted. eg. lady with
a breast lump - comes to a breast physician at our rooms, has mammogram,
U/S and biopsy. If cancer, comes back and in one visit sees a breast
surgeon, oncologist and radiation oncologist. Theatre is planned, preop
tests done on site - once - and everyone uses the same EMR with shared
results. Chemo is done on site, physio for management of lymphoedema or
shoulder complications etc. We are applying this model to cardiac
care, diabetes, obesity etc.
By sharing the EMR the efficiencies are great - for the patient and also
for the govmint in less testing and digging into the public purse. It
ends up a classic win-win. Just needs specialists to leave their egos
at the door and work together to achieve this.
Duncan Guy
Cardiologist
www.specialistservices.com.au
_______________________________________________
Gpcg_talk mailing list
[email protected]
http://ozdocit.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpcg_talk
