Getting value from an EMR

This is a very reasonable approach to the implementation that many institutions need to be beginning soon. Carrie Vaughan says:

Commit to the project
Let clinicians take the lead
Make the data easily accessible to the end user
Emphasize quality and patient safety
Continue training.
Be deliberate
Define success

Service that delights

Everyone talks about the lack of transparency in health care pricing and the detriment that is to patients shopping around for the best price. Another problem caused by the lack of transparency is that customer service at a doctor's office is usually close to non-existent.

I got a call from American Express today. 3 calls, actually - home, work, cell. Also an email. When I answered the cell, they told me that there had been a $1800 attempt at a charge at Bed, Bath and Beyond. And yesterday, an attempt at a $700 ticket on United. As soon as I confirmed that I had nothing to do with those charges, they canceled my card and are sending a new one to me overnight. No muss, no fuss and no extra liability. They'll even transfer the automatic charges (Netflix, etc.) that have over six month's history to the new card.

I appreciate that their software correctly points out anomalies in my spending pattern and their diligence in contacting me. I will continue to be a loyal customer.

What have my doctors done for me lately? How free do I feel to change doctors based on the ease of getting an appointment, or how pleasant the receptionist is? Our work in improving health care should lead to a system where it matters how the doctor or institution treats the patient personally, in addition to how well they treat them medically.

An introduction

And so it begins. I've done some personal blogging, but it feels like time to add my voice to the throngs writing about health care and information technology. There is so much to be done in further automating health care, and at least as much mis-information as meaningful dialogue.

The AARA has folks in a tizzy. Certainly the feds are capable of throwing money at anything, but look what that has accomplished in our public education system over the last 25 years. What we really need to be discussing is where the real gains from IT spending can come.

Certainly electronic medical records eliminate mistakes caused by mis-reading physician handwriting. (I can talk about MDs - both my father and father-in-law are Family Practice physicians) A complete list of medications allows for real time drug-drug interaction checking. Patients really like not having to spell their name every time they start with a new health care provider. All of these seemingly simple things are what an non-health-care IT professional might assume is already happening every time in every health care environment. In fact, they're not.

We need to achieve those goals and move well beyond them. We need ease of use that gets even doctors willing to absorb the up-front data entry cost required to get the gains on the back end. We need systems as intuitive as the iPhone, and close to as inexpensive. We need connectivity that allows even rural home care workers access to their data while in the home. That's the kind of innovation that will get us to meaningful use that is really meaningful.

My goal is to clarify these and other thoughts, and have something of interest to add to the hubbub. I will work to keep my signal to noise ratio high, so keep on watching.