Time is Money in Healthcare

The healthcare industry in the US has been a bone of contention for some time now. The reform and economic crisis have taken their effect. Job losses are ripping out the heart and health of America and improved systems to deal with the changes bring their own challenges to the community. The NG Healthcare Summit which has just taken place in Florida has been key the sort of future planning which will protect the industry into the future.

The United States spends around $2 trillion a year on healthcare expenses, more than any other country across the globe, but critics are still questioning if the country’s finances will be able to support the reform. Despite original predictions that costs would be initially reduced it would do little to stem healthcare expenditure, something which executives from the industry are determined not to let happen.

Electronic medical records (EMR) have been named as key technology innovation to improving patient care and reducing medical errors say the NG Healthcare committees who have just had their latest meeting. This has been backed through federal stimulus money that along with legislation can reshape the healthcare industry.

Still, talk to people in healthcare and it is clear that there are myriad issues that need to be resolved before there is unanimous adoption of electronic records. Key challenges include financing the conversion from paper to computerized records, designing the work flow, making systems easier to use, integrating files from multiple sources and, of course, ongoing technical support.

“Staff time is valuable especially within the healthcare industry where understaffing can mean the difference between life and death. Rather than paying trained staff overtime to enter data at the end of their shift it allows them to update as they go along without having to input the same thing multiple times” The discussion was moderated by Greg Caressi —the SVP of Healthcare and Life Sciences at Frost and Sullivan—and is was used as an exercise to openly discuss the common challenges that the group is facing as they move their respective hospital systems to a more digitally-centric future. Participants included, Mark Elmer, the CTO of Texas Health Resources; Paul Brown, the CIO of Trinity Health; Tom Doyle, the VP & Chief Architect from HCA; Eric Paternoster, SVP and Unit Head—Insurance, Healthcare & Life Sciences at Infosys Technologies; Jeff Gartland, VP of Business Development for RelayHealth and Diana Nole, President of Digital Medical Solutions for Carestream Health.

The Federal stimulus Bill has promised anywhere from $44,000 and $65,000 to doctors who convert to electronic records but the funds will be paid in increments over a span of a few years and there are still questions the committee wants answered.

“We must also remember that a shift to electronic files will not just be a financial strain but will require an overhaul of the processes used for treating patients, to make this a smooth transition is key to success”Continued the committee “With the targets set it is now up to us to implement the strategies to achieve greatness within the industry.

Despite the concerns it has never been argued that change isn’t hard but with a united industry and the budget to support the future seems set.