Friday, March 05, 2010
If There Is A Way To Make a Buck...
If there is a way to make a quick buck, someone will find it and someone else will use it to their advantage. The old adage of “buyer beware” is alive and well, it would seem, in healthcare informatics. In the rush to the “digital age” in healthcare we have seen some people put out a product and then walk-away from the long-term commitment that product should have backing it up.
In an article published by the Huffington Post Investigative Fund called “Experts: Safety Oversight Needed as Patient Records Go Digital” we find several instances of vendors seeking upwards between $70-million and $100-million dollars for their systems.
Read more: http://huffpostfund.org/stories/2010/02/experts-safety-oversight-needed-patient-records-go-digital#ixzz0hLKd53vA
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It must be remembered that these systems are not plug-n-play. They take years, if not decades, to implement properly, and if you just throw one in and expect to use it you will get the type of results we have been seeing.
In another work by Koppel (Gumpper, K., Zellmer, W., Aarts, J., & Koppel, R.. (2009). Computerized Order Entry/Computerized Order Entry: The Authors Respond. Health Affairs, 28(4), 1231-1232. Retrieved March 5, 2010, from ProQuest Central. (Document ID: 1799972741) we see “The potential for harm is nearly equal in the prescribing and drug-administration steps.2 Thus, it is noteworthy that 24 percent of hospitals have invested in bar-code drug administration technology, and 56 percent of the rest plan to do so within three years.3 Computerized infusion pumps that check doses against preset limits are used by 44 percent of hospitals; 47 percent of the rest plan to acquire this technology within three years.”
So now we have the government seeming to work against itself (what else is new). We have Federal regulators looking at implementing safety oversight to slow down the implementation of digital records at the same time the administration and Congress are throwing billions of dollars of stimulus money at doctors and hospitals to get them to implement within the next five years.
Again quoting the article from the Huffington Post Investigative Fund – “
Under the stimulus law, doctors can receive up to $44,000 in extra Medicare payments if they purchase digital systems and take a number of steps to make “meaningful use” of them.”
Under the stimulus law, doctors can receive up to $44,000 in extra Medicare payments if they purchase digital systems and take a number of steps to make “meaningful use” of them.”
Read more: http://huffpostfund.org/stories/2010/02/experts-safety-oversight-needed-patient-records-go-digital#ixzz0hLMNOwBy
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So am I the only one who thinks this is a little skewed?
