Less Than One in Three Hospitals Can Share Records Electronically
The year is 2017 and the only profession that still uses faxes, beepers and can’t share records electronically is our healthcare system. How embarrassing is that?
A new study found that:
- Just 30 percent of hospitals had achieved so-called interoperability
- The most common barrier these hospitals reported to using outside information was that their clinicians could not see it embedded into their own system’s electronic health record.
- Just 19 percent of hospitals said they often used data from outside providers.
- To compensate, patients often obtain copies of records that they deliver in person to an outside provider or request that they be sent.
It would really be nice if we figured this out instead bogus crap like MACRA, MIPS, PQRS that just wastes everyone’s time.
Realistically, even if the information exchange is available, the information we get is still garbage. 10 pages of gobbled-goop and in the end all I need is some sort of coherent assessment and plan, all the while interspersed with the patient’s diet history, whether or not they got flu shot, do they smoke, feel safe at home, ad nauseum etc, etc.
The technology wasn’t really ready, which didn’t stop the gummit from cramming it down our collective throats. The technology is available now and some areas have health information exchanges, but not in my area, mostly because here there are 4 major hospital systems who hate fear and distrust one another.
Nothing was crammed down our collective throats. Doctors who had lost the ability to think critically followed the thought leaders off the cliff.
It’s still very easy to run a successful practice using paper.
Or, to put it more poetically:
Nothing was crammed down our collective throats – physicians opened their mouths wide so Judy Falkner could shit in them.
You’re laboring under the delusion that EMRs have something to do with better patient care.
Get over it.
Many definitions of successful interoperability consist merely of the sharing of data images of medical records and documents. This is a significant step backwards. It resembles digital microfilm technology. Yet, it seems to count as “interoperability.”
I have spent long periods of time scanning through badly-made images of medical records, only one page out of ten offering useful information in the care of the patient.
Such things occur when there is not obligation for utility built into a standard. We are going in that direction. Should a surgeon promise to “do” your operation, such as a CABG, namely stitch the right tubes to the right holes – but not promise that you would SURVIVE the operation – wouldn’t you be a little uncomfortable?