Many Hospitals Resist Computerized Patient Care

NY Times ^ | April 6, 2004 | MILT FREUDENHEIM

[neverdem]

Thanks for the thought, but I'm thinking about the hospital nurses' station for inpatients. Usually the docs queue up on the what's usually at most three terminals, to obtain that information for their patients. The unit clerk is often entering orders on one of those terminals.
This may require the hospitals to buy many more CRTs or flatscreens and equivalent number of keyboards. Or it may require docs to use laptops. But an accessible EMR will have to remain in the hospital. If docs have to tote laptops around all the time, it doesn't sound that practical because of security reasons, i.e. losing the laptop and identifying a possible doc for robbery.

Docs have other places to go besides hospitals, i.e. clinics, nursing homes, private office etc. Some even still do housecalls.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Tablet PCs could be the next big thing in health care. Nurses and Docs are used to clipboards that they can jot down notes with...

Just last year I prototyped a scaled down version of a Cath Lab Management System, for performing patient checklists and assessments, inventory, and all kinds of other aspects of the Cath Lab duties - it was pretty sweet... ;0)

[neverdem]

What's the dimensions of these Tablet PCs?

[Taliesan]

1. You're assuming a major part of an EMR is the prescription module. Incorrect. It is an ancillary module. The core issue is the patient-encounter. A PDA is too small for that.

2. "Doctor-owned hospitals" get "bailed out" every year? You don't know what you're talking about.

3. Health care differs from a car dealership in a number of ways. I'm sorry to have to be the one to point this out to you.

4. Nevertheless, if a private business adopts a technology it is because the ROI is superior to other uses of those dollars.

When the ROI on EMR hits a threshold point (taking into account the human cost of the error rate) it will be quickly adopted. That it has not yet is simply a reflection of the fact that the reduction in errors will be small and an insignificant factor -- despite the hyperventilation of journalists and internet experts.

"Medical errors" is one of those periodic journalistic fads, like burning churches, heterosexual AIDS, homelessness, road rage, alar on apples. These fads are created and sustained by people with political agendas. Reporters are generally not educated in any particular discipline, so they are easy to lead around by the nose.

"Medical errors", like "Patient privacy", is one of the pseudo-issues used a fulcrum by the advocates of single-payer health care.

Fake.

[neverdem]

I appreciate your comments. BTW, what does ROI mean?

[Taliesan]

Return On Investment

[Taliesan]

Most hospitals mount wireless laptops or tablets on rollable stands.

[neverdem]

Most hospitals mount wireless laptops or tablets on rollable stands.

I was describing conditions that I saw less than two years ago in a community hospital in the Bronx, NY. If it's progressed that much to the better, so be it and thank the Lord.

[adam_az]

"Many Hospitals Resist Computerized Patient Care"

This article completely misses the reason many doctors maintain 100% paper records.

It's called the KENNEDY-Kassebaum act, aka HIPAA.

It imposes onerous data security requirements on medical providers that keep even ONE patients record in electronic format. It is VERY expensive to get to compliance and maintain compliance. We're talking a team of $250/hr consultants.

BTW, I'm a CISSP. At the same time, I hate make-work regulations - even when they "make work" for my industry.

[FITZ]

Chicken scratch penmanship causing fatal prescription errors is not the only issue.

I think everyone is like that to some degree --- there is something about reading a paper newspaper or magazine that is different than reading news on web pages --- just like a physical paper chart where the doctor can circle or make notes next to lab reports, use initials etc.

[KOZ.]

for later

[neverdem]

How did you retrieve this link when it's over a week old?

[Lancey Howard]

bttt

[cherry]

that is, if the radiologist has read the Xray and dictated it.....then and only then, will the doc be able to access the report....

lost in all of this is the fact that if you don't have the personal to actually do the test, let alone to prepare a report, then its all for naught...

case any civilians don't know, many hospitals, especially community hospitals, do not have full physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, MRI, CT or US techs available on weekends or holidays, as well as evening or night shifts...

while hospitals claim to provide 24 hr care, they basically mean the nurses will be there...and they cut the staffing so close, its amazing that anything is done at all.....

we have to fight like crazy to have special tests done.....the ususally rant is " you know we're gonna have to call someone in, don't you?"

BTW.....I don't believe that famed 98,000 figure that gets tossed around...

IIRC, that survey was of hospitals and nursing homes, and how the heck can you throw chronically ill elderly into the mix and not say that many were already on their death beds...

but I guess we need a crisis in this country to keep us happy.....

[Born Conservative]

that is, if the radiologist has read the Xray and dictated it.....then and only then, will the doc be able to access the report....

Actually, the EMR that we use has the actual IMAGES online, in addition to the dictated report by the radiologist.

[adam_az]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/k-healthcare/browse

[neverdem]

As I post many medical and health related articles, how did this thread get placed here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/k-healthcare/browse

[adam_az]

Thats what KEYWORDS are for!

[neverdem]

Thats what KEYWORDS are for!

I'm not familiar with how to use KEYWORDS. I just enter them on articles I post. I may be entering KEYWORDS that are to narrow or broad. Can you refer me to a primer on this?

[adam_az]

Basically, if someone types the keyword 'healthcare' for an article and you click it, you get a time-organized list of all the articles with that keyword.