Today this came across my desk.
Bush presses healthcare IT in State of the Union speech
In his final State of the Union address loaded with tough topics such as troop withdrawal from Iraq and emergency measures to boost a weakened economy, President Bush again highlighted information technology as critical to transforming healthcare.
"To build a future of quality healthcare, we must trust patients and doctors to make medical decisions and empower them with better information and better options," Bush said.
"We share a common goal of making healthcare more affordable and accessible for all Americans."
The president listed healthcare IT among several key aspects of healthcare reform, including the expansion of health savings accounts, the creation of association health plans for small businesses and the elimination of junk medical lawsuits. He also called for a change in the tax code to put coverage within reach of millions of Americans who do not get health insurance through their employers, and thus can't pay premiums with tax- free dollars.
He received rousing applause from Republicans when he said expansion of consumer choice, not government control, is the best way to achieve healthcare reform.
Consumer choice has been a cornerstone of Bush's policy to bring value to U.S. healthcare. His value-driven healthcare plan calls for electronic health records and the reporting of quality measures as a way to drive down costs and bring transparency to an ailing healthcare system.
Continue reading here:
http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8519
Where the hell is the e-Health leadership in Australia?
All I can say is that if the most awful and incompetent leader in the Western World – and all his smarter international mates ‘get-it’- what about the current Rudd Government? Thus far not a ‘dickie bird’ – except rubbish about the Government apparently following some secret NEHTA / Medicare Plan for Australian e-Health domination. What a policy farce! Ms Roxon and her advisors need to lift their game – and promptly!
The lack of Commonwealth co-ordination, planning and care in e-Health is moving from a serious problem to a serious policy failure at an amazing pace. Ms Halton, Mr Reid and mates – get onto this and fast!
This is simply not good enough.
David.
Basically Government has only two really practical options open to it.
ReplyDeleteThe first is to continue pouring money into NEHTA and other DoHA ehealth projects like HealthConnect and similar failed initiatives, and in doing so hope that something good might eventually emerge from under the direction of all those who remain in-charge of (and who created) the appalling present situation which you consistently describe.
The other option that makes more sense is to pass the entire ehealth 'budget' through John Faulkner's razor gang. They will most likely chop 50% thus forcing a downsizing and clean-out of 'the fungus and dead wood'. this will stimulate a serious wake-up-call to those who remain to get their act together before further funds are made available to grow and move forward again.
The latter option might be tough medicine and cause a lot of pain, wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth. Even so, it will undoubtedly be the much needed stimulus to putting together the strategic plan you have been demanding for so long.
It's a good idea BUT the 'razor' has to have something to chop into and I don't think anyone could point to a 'budget'' or 'bucket of program funds' that Faulkner's lot could look at. The basic problem is that there's so much ad hocery, so little clear and precise planning, that everything with ehealth seems to be lost in a pool of murky sludge. Isn't that why after all the money that's been spent over the last few years on ehealth there's next to nothing of worth to show for it?
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine uses the term "Brownian Motion" to describe Australian E-Health. Not far off the mark I reckon.
ReplyDeleteDavid.
If "the most awful and incompetent leader in the Western World – and all his smarter international mates ‘get-it’- " ---Then perhaps one might consider more carefully examining the proposal made! Sure, it sounds good, but what really is happening to patient care the in the U.S. with the healthcare IT initiative underway?
ReplyDeleteFor one thing, huge sums are being put into purchasing technology that hospitals appear not to be competent to evaluate. The sales pitch is accepted. Then, having made a big expensive choice that is fraught with unsolvable problems, somehow, they feel pressure to justify it, perpetuating the problem. So, when you hear how great things are working, consider you may be hearing the sales pitch, and the person who was responsible for authorizing the expenditure.
In the meantime, excited by the concept of voice recognition and cheap offshore transcription, the amount willing to pay local transcriptions is reduced exponentially, forcing these people into other lines of work. Then, the use of offshore transcriptionists becomes justified by "there are not enough transcriptionists", when in fact, since the transcriptionists have to pay living costs locally, they need to have jobs that will begin meet those costs. Piece-work is illegal in the U.S. --with the exception of medical transcription! These are sweatshop jobs now.
Now, you have persons far away from the medical practice trying to decipher what the doc is saying--and they have no access to the whole record, so they cannot check back to see what may have appeared previously. (Thank you, HIPPA) They make their best guess, which frequently "reads okay" but is not what the physician intended to say at the time. Sometimes it does not even read okay--it just passes spellcheck--and gets into the electronic medical record. By the way--it is time-consuming and typically difficult if not impossible to correct something once it is in the electronic medical record. Voice recognition will make these errors with zero angst. What an "improvement" that will be!
If patient care were a priority, some value would be placed on extra careful, human attention to these details at the origin of the note. It would cost a minimal amount more in operational costs, and accrue to the benefit of patient care enormously, that is, if patient care is an issue.
With regard to 'most awful and incompetent leader in the Western World'--my guess he and his friends have stock in IT products, that are about to be made 'mandatory'.
Yimji Wills, USA