Kathleen O’Connor, health care industry analyst and journalist, founded
CodeBlueNow! upon the belief that the public has a right to be involved
in creating its own health care policy. Involved in healthcare for 30 years, she
shares her unique ability to communicate current health care topics in
a language everyone can understand.Let's Get Health Care into Computer Age
This missive was originally posted on 2/20/2005
David J. Brailer, the federal official responsible for overseeing the IT implementation for Health and Human Services, is trying to prod the nation's healthcare system into the computer age. He has delivered a warning to the healthcare industry at the annual HIMSS conference last week: take steps soon to make it happen or the government will probably impose a solution. http://www.himss.org/content/files/DavidBrailerRemarksHIMSS2005.pdf
This is the wrong group--he needs to take his case to the public! Nearly 30 cents of every health care dollar goes to unneccessary paperwork. Poor medical records mean that nearly 200,000 people die every year from medical errors.
Now, if there were a place where the government and the people could unite, this would be it! We need one claim form and one electronic medical record or at least the ability to access that record. If HHS wanted to make this happen sooner rather than later, all they would have to do is tie Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement to one standard record and claim form. We'd see some action then!
Listen to CodeBlueNow's Radio Show this week with Kathleen and Dave Garets, President and CEO from HIMSS Analytics on the future of IT and Health Care.
Pass it on. Kathleen
