Hi Horst,
Horst Herb wrote:
On Wednesday 14 February 2007 07:49, Jon Patrick wrote:
As a tax-payer I have always had a problem with the arguments for the
need for an EHR. I have never heard any case that convinced me that it
would make a difference
..
For me what is missing is a plain English description of what would be
different for me the patient with my health care, not what would be
different for the physician. For example case studies that showed how a
person's care plan materially changed and saved their life because
information was available which would otherwise not be.
You are not practising medicine, obviously.
Obviously, I'm not and I was invited to join this list because I am not
practising medicine. Your sarcasm on the matter is inappropriate.
Your exemplars are exemplary and are exactly what I am saying is missing
from the promotion of Health IT to the politicians/public.
If other practitioners are prepared to contribute more content along
this line I will use it in my advice to others further up the chain.
cheers
jon
If you would work in both GP and A&E like me, there would hardly be a working
day where not at least one expensive diagnostic procedure or test is
needlessly duplicated or performed simply because you cannot get timely
access to information
Some of it just costs time and money (eg ultrasound examinations), some are
even harmful to the patient (eg CT scans).
If you are a patient (especially in a rural area), it makes the difference
between having to travel several hours for an ultrasound or CT scan or not,
being exposed to an additional 400 times radiation equivalent of a chest
X-Ray or not, between being billed a few hundred dollars by the lab because
Medicare rules do not allow certain tests to be repeated more often than
certain time intervals (eg HbA1c) etc.
Reducing duplicate needless tests and diagnostic procedures alone would
already make a nationwide compatible EHR system worthwhile for the taxpayer
with in a single election period.
But human life is generally regarded even more important than time or money
some might say - concrete examples from my own hospital of potentially saved
lifes via EHR access:
- man with recent anaphylactic reaction to Penicillin about to be treated with
Penicillin by a locum who fortunately had access to our surgery records via
VPN (the man in question stated just "sulpha" as allergy)
- comatous patient brought in by ambulance to our small district hopsital with
few diagnostic options. No previous relevant hospital records. VPN access to
our surgery records revealed previous episodes with severe hyperkalemia
Horst
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