RHIOs Call in Sick

Information Week's cover story this week, Diagnosis Critical, paints a pretty bleak picture of health IT in this country. At issue is the ability to exchange patient data between healthcare providers in a Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO). I mentioned a RHIO which I had personally experienced in a blog last January; the Integrated Physician Network (iPN) Avista. Although RHIOs have some advantages for providers and patients, the economics are not sufficiently compelling for hospitals to create them without grant funding.

The failure of a role model RHIO, the Santa Barbara County Care Data Exchange, at the end of 2006 highlights the problems facing RHIOs and the exchange of patient information. The problems ranged from too ambitious to lack of community support, but in the end the providers could not see the value in the network. SBCCDE spent eight years building their network, if they had been able to accurately predict the time and expense in setting up the system they may have been better able to set expectations. But had they possessed that information at the start would they have proceeded with the project in the first place?

Integrated healthcare systems, such as Kaiser Permanente and the UK's National Health Service, have strong economic incentive to streamline processes and reduce costs, motivating them to persevere even when struggling against daunting cultural and technical hurdles. But the loose federation of healthcare providers in the U.S. doesn't have those incentives; the costs of inefficiencies just get passed along to the consumers.

The American Health Information Community, an advisory group to the federal government, is expected to recommend that doctors using health IT systems receive higher reimbursement rates for treating Medicare patients. Although creating financial incentives to drive health IT is a powerful motivator, there are people who feel that nothing short of a government mandate will be necessary to drive adoption. I'm all in favor of holding out a carrot, but do we really think using the stick will speed the process?

EMRs in Private Practice

I went in for my annual physical exam last week at my local doctor's office. Although I knew they were implementing an Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system there, I wasn't expecting too much, it is a relatively small practice and most EMRs are beyond their price range. As usual, I was given the obligatory paper sheets on which I attempted to record my medical history as well as that of the rest of my family. Fortunately, I don't have to remember too much although I couldn't tell you when was the last time I got certain shots.

I noticed that the nurses were carrying notebook computers around with them, not exactly handhelds but they appeared comfortable enough to carry. The whole office was apparently on a wireless network pulling up patient records from a central server and editing them on the notebooks. The paper form I had filled out earlier had been entered into the electronic record and the interviewing nurse simply ran down the list on the notebook and filled in other information using a scribe on the touch screen. What was even more impressive was the lab tests that were done earlier in the week by Quest Diagnostics had been integrated into the record and were available right there on my chart.

This practice is part of Integrated Physician Network (iPN) Avista; a Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) including Avista Adventist Hospital and 14-private physician practices in the Boulder, Colorado region. The network uses an EMR from NextGen Healthcare Information Systems. The software will integrate with the hospital information system from Meditech Inc. The network has also completed a laboratory interface with Quest Diagnostics Inc.

Not only could my doctor order prescriptions directly to local pharmacies, he could also order lab tests and schedule consults with other practices, even those not on the iPN network (albeit using the lowly faxing capability). In the end the reduction in the amount of support services by switching to electronic records will be tremendous not to mention the reduction in number and cost of errors. This didn't come cheap however; the U.S. Health Resources and Service Administration has contributed $2.3 million over the next three years and the physicians and hospitals have put in another $1.5 million.

Those of us who are technically inclined may have a hard time getting excited about less than cutting-edge technologies such as wireless networks, and integrated systems, but for healthcare, and especially small practice healthcare, this is no less than earth shattering.

My doctor did point out a slight flaw in the system; back when they were still paper based the screening nurse would place a red card in the paper tray outside of the examination room indicated that she was finished and that the doctor could continue the exam. Now that they were paperless, the trays had been taken down and the doctors could no longer tell which patients were ready to be examined. EMRs have brought the practice of medicine a long ways, but some low tech information systems may still be superior.