Latest California Healthline Stories
Electronic Records Revolution About To Hit?
With all the talk about implementing electronic health records throughout California’s health care centers, you would think technology is now part of the health infrastructure. But adoption of EHRs by physicians and hospitals is far from ubiquitous in the state, according to Larry Dickey, medical director at the Office of Health Information Technology, in the state’s Department of Health Care Services.
The data are not good on just how many physicians have implemented EHRs so far, Dickey said, but it’s clear that a large number of private clinicians do not have them.
“The larger physician groups are more likely to have them than the solo practitioners,” Dickey said. Hospitals, “where you would expect much higher numbers,” Dickey said, are still lagging. Dickey said “45% of hospitals have no electronic health record at all.”
California Veterans Granted Access to Health Records
Government officials at last week’s Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco were exuberant when unveiling their plan to release millions of individual electronic medical records to veterans.
They call it the “Blue Button,” and the idea is, by pressing a single button on the Internet, veterans can download their own health information and store it on a thumb drive, so that any health care provider can access a complete health record instantly.
“The U.S. government is sitting on tens of billions of dollars worth of data — it is a tsunami of information,” said Todd Park, chief technology officer at HHS. “The idea is to unleash that data, for free.”
At a recent panel discussion in Sacramento, the information came fast and furious — all of it on health information technology.
There was a lot to talk about. The state’s Regional Expansion Centers, the California Telehealth Network, Cal eConnect and the Beacon community in San Diego are all examples of major projects to bring electronic medical record systems to the computers of physicians across the state.
“The vast majority of the country does not have the management and financial infrastructure to implement electronic medical record systems,” David Lansky, the president and CEO of Pacific Business Group on Health, said. “And starting next year, the federal government is going to be spending substantial money to providers who can show they’re using electronic medical record technology.”
Grant Money Funds New Online EHR Help
There is an enormous effort nationally and within California to get physicians — particularly primary care physicians — to convert to electronic health records. The group least equipped to make the switch are the cash-strapped, time-challenged, small-office family medicine practices.
That’s where Susan Hogeland of the California Academy of Family Physicians hopes to step in and make a difference.
CAFP just received a grant from the Physicians Foundation to try an interesting project — to reach physicians in California online, to remotely help them research, fund and implement EHR systems in their offices.
HHS Secretary Sebelius Adopts Initial Enrollment Recs
On Friday, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius accepted initial recommendations, developed by the Health IT Standards and Policy committees’ enrollment work group, that aim to improve the enrollment process for health and human services programs.
Health IT Moves Forward With Privacy, Consent
ONC’s Health IT Policy Committee recently approved patient privacy recommendations from the privacy and security work group — the Tiger Team — making headway on one of the thorniest issues confronting the growth of electronic records in health care.
Let the Tele-Doctoring Continue, Expand
From a health policy point of view, the star power was out in force at yesterday’s official inauguration of the California Telehealth Network.
Aneesh Chopra, national chief technology officer, was chatting with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The head of health sciences and services for the UC system, Jack Stobo, was nodding at something said by Sharon Gillette, bureau chief for the FCC.
They were all out to announce the success and expansion of a telemedicine pilot project that has been running since 2007. With the help of $22 million from the FCC’s broadband initiative — one of the largest grants awarded by the agency — and another $3.6 million of corporate money pitched in by the California Emerging Technology Fund, the state officially launched its CTN agency yesterday.
Information Exchanges Show Signs of Progress
The national effort to establish a network of health information exchanges could streamline health care costs and provide medical professionals with more timely and accurate patient information, by electronically merging information between physicians, laboratories, pharmacies and hospitals.
The goal is to have less paperwork, less duplication of services, better patient outcomes and to lower costs for everyone.
Health information exchanges have received a lot of media attention recently, but exchanges have been operating around the country for the past seven years. And the number of those information exchanges has been steadily rising every year, both nationally and in California.
Customer Experience Ignored in Health Care?
Health professionals gathered in San Diego this week for the annual Health Unbound Conference to discuss the latest array of promising devices for making patients’ lives better — self-monitoring devices, home telehealth, social media and other e-health tools and advances.
But here’s the thing, said one speaker at the conference: There are so many useful devices and applications being developed to help patients achieve better health and longer lives, but getting those patients to use that technology can be a huge challenge.
“In general, health is a very intangible outcome,” Elizabeth Boehm of Forrester Research said, adding, “What does it mean to be slightly healthier? You’re talking about adding years to the end of my life, but the stuff that’s unhealthy has a shorter-term payoff. It usually tastes good, feels good, supplies immediate pleasure. It’s hard to get people to engage and use those long-term tools that make their health better.”
California’s New Health Information Exchange Hires CEO
Carladenise Edwards, former health IT coordinator for the state of Georgia and health IT adviser in Florida, is the new president and CEO of Cal eConnect and will manage California’s $38.8 million federal grant for health information exchange.