Obamacare: Electronic Medical Records Continued from page 51
ing the patient care they were originally trained for. These environments easily lead to misdiagnosis, negative impact on productivity, and time taken away from patients, contrary to the goals of Obamacare.
TIME FOR BAND-AID TO BE CHANGED Obamacare’s emphasis on quality care also impacts the method of reimbursement, from pay-perprocedure to pay-per-performance, non-reimbursement for readmission within 30 days of discharge, and quality guidelines. These enforcements dramatically change the need for care quality, efficiency and productivity for care providers from nice-to-have to must haves. With Obamacare’s paperless records mandate beginning this year, 2014 is the time to finally fulfill the original promise of ending medical deaths and needless spending. This is the year to resolve these issues and go beyond the EMR band-aid approach.
BRIDGING THE DATA GAP What the medical industry needs to finally bridge the gap between medical records and improved patient care is technology that works the way medical professionals work. A system to align medical professionals with data that needs to be collaborative, not passive, and include analysis. The right data also needs to be delivered to those who need it, when they need it, with all the data in one place. A true electronic replacement for the all encompassing and universally deployed nurses’ chart. Provide an open architecture so third-party developers can save on development costs when creating new, innovative solutions.
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A cloud-based data network that connects to multiple databases and legacy systems instead of proprietary databases. Systems that make the data smart through collaborative platforms that can analyse and interpret the data.
costly, resource wasting practice of replacing old systems with new. This scrap and build IT practice at many medical facilities is one of the leading causes of high hospital costs that are passed onto insurance companies and ultimately consumers.
Add voice to text capability to save valuable physician and nurse time and help end miscommunications. Replace the nurses’ sheet with a single screen that can compare and analyse all the necessary data with all medical professionals using the same device.
MEDICAL RECORD HUBS FOR 2014 While EMR software can still be used for more limited point-to-point solutions, there needs to be a paradigm shift with a patient centric approach that connects all the points. Smart collaborative hubs need to be How healthy developed that enable hospital IT administrators to differentiate between these new data hubs and traditional EMR services.
Thanh Tran is CEO of Zoeticx, Inc., a medical software company located in San Jose, CA. He is a 20 year veteran of Silicon Valley’s IT industry and has held executive positions at many leading software companies.
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However, developers must ensure that present EMR tools can connect and share data with these new overarching hub systems, side lining yet another set of tools and further implementing the
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