ONC Beacon Communities: A Proving Ground for Health IT and EHRs
As a physician, I’m trained to rely on proven methods and seek evidence that new approaches to care will lead to better outcomes. The new Beacon Community Program, announced today and funded at the level of $235 million through the HITECH Act, is designed with that approach in mind. This program aims to further strengthen advanced health information exchange capabilities established within 15 diverse communities throughout the United States.
The core goal of the Beacon Community Program is to advance specific health improvement goals through interoperable health IT and standards-based information exchange within and among providers, hospitals, and populations. In other words, Beacon Communities are designed to be the proving ground for meaningful use of EHRs and health information exchange, where we test the proposition that health IT adoption as envisioned does actually improve health care in measurable ways, and in different types of health communities. These communities will also show that safeguards for the privacy and security of sensitive health information are both feasible and effective.
The Beacon Community entities ultimately selected for participation in this program will be diverse and representative – large and small, urban and rural, prosperous and underserved. But they will have two things in common: they will all be well above-average users of health IT, and they will be fully committed to employing health information exchange within their communities.
Why invest in health communities that are already well ahead in their adoption and use of health IT, when we still have so many communities that are just getting started? Simply put, because it’s sound planning and program management. Together with the Medicare and Medicaid program, we are investing billions of dollars in creating a nationwide interoperable private and secure health information system across all communities. We recognize that throughout our country we have different levels of health IT adoption and varied capabilities to establish EHR systems. Because of this diversity in adoption levels and capabilities, we want an opportunity to peer into the future, to demonstrate the benefits of health IT concretely, and to learn valuable lessons about how American communities can transform their health systems through the use of health IT. Given the pressure to improve our health system, we want to learn these lessons quickly – in a few years if possible – and we think the best way to do that is to accelerate the progress of diverse communities that are leading the way.
At the same time, the Beacon Communities will be coordinating their efforts and sharing lessons learned with the 70 Regional Extension Centers and State Health Information Exchange program that are providing the needed assistance to health care providers just getting started in their EHR system deployments. We also expect Beacon Communities to coordinate closely, wherever feasible, with the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense’s efforts to improve the care of veterans and military personnel through health information exchange.
Demonstrating that widespread adoption and meaningful use of health IT is both feasible and can lead to improved care and cost savings in the Beacon Communities can empower and motivate other communities to get connected. Beacon Communities will, we hope, light the path toward a higher quality, more efficient health care system for all Americans.
I encourage you to learn more about the Beacon Community Program through http://HealthIT.HHS.Gov and by reading the Fact Sheet found online.
– By David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P. – National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
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Its very interesting that this “community” does not provide any option to real community-based small practices to participate in this grant process. I am afraid this is another PR stunt – all show, no substance. I will believe a government initiative when there is simplicity and transparency, neither of which I see in this initiative.
I think the Beacon Communities could be a great avenue for modeling effective use of information technology to improve quality and lower costs. My only concern is that the aggressive timelines are going to mean that it will be difficult for many groups to meet the criteria to qualify. I also hope to see the transparency that this administration has advocated continued throughout the process. Clear explanations for why each grantee was denied or chosen need to be published so that there is not a whiff of scandal. This is still a lot of money (even though it may seem insignificant compared with the billions and trillions of dollars that are being discussed in health reform) and millions of dollars can make the difference between successful programs and failure.
I look forward to seeing these communities evolve and hope to hear some fantastic success stories in the future.
See full post at http://netmesh.info/jernst/big_picture/spot-the-difference-yahoofacebook-vs-governmenthealth-it
Today, two pieces of news came in right after each other:
* The US Federal Government’s Beacon Community Program has been given $235 million of taxpayer money for “… interoperable health IT and standards-based information exchange within and among providers, hospitals, and populations” “within 15 diverse communities throughout the United States” (see announcement).
* Also, Yahoo announced that they will “deeply integrate” their properties with Facebook’s in order to “provide one place for people to access information and stay in touch with the people they care about most” for their user base of “500 million” (see announcement). No money will change hands as far as I can tell.
Here are the questions:
* How come it needs $235 million of taxpayer money for a mere 17 communities to make some (limited) amount of progress on exchanging data, if Yahoo and Facebook can roll out these kinds of integrations for more people than there live in the US on their own dime?
* How come the $2 trillion+ healthcare industry does not do these kinds of strategic projects on their own? Nobody could reasonably argue the business case in healthcare (save percentage of the $2 trillion) is smaller than Yahoo’s and Facebook’s (a percentage of their revenue, which is in the $10 billion ballpark).
continued … concluding with a challenge, at http://netmesh.info/jernst/big_picture/spot-the-difference-yahoofacebook-vs-governmenthealth-it
Actually the health IT community is a multi-billion dollar industry already and ALL of the current implementations were paid for by hospital systems and providers “themselves” but they then then pass those costs on to payers like government.
Since the federal government is one of the largest purchasers of health care and they have a vested interest in paying (45 billion through Medicare and Medicaid) for something that actually works in terms of measurable outcomes (vs simply being able to bill faster) this makes total sense to me.
In the past the primary stakeholder was the hospital system not the payers so the vendors failed to provide much interoperability. The largest EMR vendor with over 125,000 doctors for example didn’t provide any way for hospitals in the same city with the same product the ability to share patient data (Kaiser, VA, Stanford, Palo Alto Medical for example)
The stimulus money is in many ways simply seed capital and bring the payer to the table is a fundamental game changer and finding best practices is a common business practice. If you view health care as a cost you might come to a different conclusion than those of us who view this as an investment with a real ROI.
Creating national centers of excellence where we can share best practices will be one of the critical factors in what is essentially a complex organizational change management process vs a Health IT implementation project.
The ability to create a shared knowledge-base and learn what tools, process and methodologies are successful along with lessons learned from those situations that are not successful will be invaluable to those communities who are working to develop their own competencies and expertise.
Many of us know from complex successful real-world implementations that it is critical to engage all of the stakeholders (Patients, Providers, IT, finance) long before the actual implementation. Unless health IT allows providers to deliver higher quality, more efficient patient center care the project isn’t sustainable. Change however happens person by persona and it is often the one to one shared stories of success that serve as powerful levers in health IT adoption. This shared narrative and body of knowledge will also help to mitigate the natural resistance to change that we see reflected in media stories highlighting those organizations that are struggling to master these lessons on their own. Almost any provider knows that simply providing data or information to a patient only rarely brings about change and the same is true when we ask people who work in healthcare to change their own behavior.
One area that I hope is explored is how different business models have a profound impact on what tools are adopted. Many early adopters like VA and Kaiser have providers on salary so any savings are retained by the system. It is far easier to get providers to use tools like email and remote visits if they are compensated. Even if the technology is perfect, the staff is open to change, the providers are excited about improving patient outcomes and patients are engaged until we bring payers into the conversation we will never be able to move past EMR implementation and Health IT adoption to Health care optimization.
I have a practical request (for a change
.
From what I saw in the grant papers the communities that will be selected for these grants must already have an EHR adoption rate of 25% – 30%. This obviously is no small achievement considering the national rates of adoption. These folks must have been doing something right even before they receive the Beacon grants.
I think it would be in everybody’s interest to know exactly what sets them apart.
So maybe it is possible to add a requirement to the grant that these communities document to the best of their abilities the process that allowed them to achieve these adoption rates from the start. This should include the historical time lines, the project planning process, the drivers, the champions, the leadership, the prior funding mechanisms, the pitfalls, the solutions and everything that can be recalled, documented and substantiated.
I think these would be very valuable lessons to learn going forward.
That does seem like a high benchmark to me as well.
Even in those communities with the highest adoption rates it is more a function of having large group practices and collaborations with payers then anything to do with the technology or implementation strategy.
In addition the techniques and business case that you use in large group practices are often dramatically different then what is used in small practices with 1 to 5 providers. Something as simple as docs on salary being given time to answer email (and still paid) can’t be easily duplicated in small practices without changes in how they are compensated. Providers aren’t averse to technology but they are highly resistant to anything that will impact their income or their ability to actually treat patients.
You are making some excellent points. How will those selected for participation in this program be diverse and representative (large and small, urban and rural, prosperous and underserved) and yet still be well ahead in their adoption and use of health IT? It is unlikely that there are many small, rural underserved communities that are well ahead in their adoption. I hope that we will see the bar slightly lowered for smaller practices with less resources, than for large multi-specialty groups.
Totally agree with this comment, since I belong to the small practice group. Another critical question I have is how does this initiative allow for small practices like mine to participate without being part of a large super group of institutions. Our practice has been “electronic” for 7.5 years; we deal with 7 local/regional hospitals and 3-4 national labs, not to mentions innumerable radiology centers, etc. How do we fit in this “community” being ourselves, since we meet the other criteria set forth in this initiative. Wish that Dr. Blumenthal could actually participate in this blog and provide answers.
Sherry said:
Many of us know from complex successful real-world implementations that it is critical to engage all of the stakeholders (Patients, Providers, IT, finance) long before the actual implementation. Unless health IT allows providers to deliver higher quality, more efficient patient center care the project isn’t sustainable. Change however happens person by persona and it is often the one to one shared stories of success that serve as powerful levers in health IT adoption. This shared narrative and body of knowledge will also help to mitigate the natural resistance to change that we see reflected in media stories highlighting those organizations that are struggling to master these lessons on their own. Almost any provider knows that simply providing data or information to a patient only rarely brings about change and the same is true when we ask people who work in healthcare to change their own behavior.”
Sherry, you are absolutely right! We need a unified, national educational and informational effort to get all the stakeholders on the same page to address the issues you mention. I have spent most of this year developing a program with a “mascot” a la Smokey the Bear (Health System “Ed”) which is a simple, interactive and low-cost entry level educational tool to get individual buy in from the people who work in the system as we move forward. This post is NOT intended as a sales vehicle at all (because I haven’t figured out how to get paid for this idea) but this blog seems like a good place to get this idea out there.
Health System Ed is designed as a one-hour elearning module that can be delivered to everyone at a very low cost per user that will relay all the essential information about why we are moving to health IT, what it will do to improve patient care and lower costs, and what individuals working in the system need to do to make it happen. By getting everyone using the same basic educational program, we can more easily move together in one direction more quickly, we can more rapidly achieve full uptake, and we can achieve meaningful use. The $80 million for community colleges to roll out facilitators on the ground is a GREAT idea to put bodies into the healthcare environment to pull through the behaviors. And the $235 million for the Beacon Community program could be one way to mine lessons learned that we can deploy in a national, computer-based educational program.
After the initial, required, one-hour elearning training program, the concepts can be pulled through with motivational and educational messages delivered via computers and reinforced with simple posters featuring “Ed” with reminder messages. This is a simple effort that combines education, motivational messaging, reinforcement, consistency and trackability. I have already identified and am working with an elearning provider who contracts with another branch of the US goverment that will give us a government best price and make sure the program we deliver meets ADA standards. The company has the capacity to do it, and I have already developed a prototype if you would like to know more about the idea.
I just finished the prototype in November and am currently working through my local Congressman and contacting the state HIE director to see if we can do a pilot program to refine the concept. Also, I just finished my application as a women-owned business enterprise to be certified to receive ARRA funding because that might be the best way to make this happen.
Reaction, please.
[...] Article David Blumenthal, Health IT Buzz, 2 December 2009 [...]
Does this mean that Blumenthal authorizes experimenting on patients without their consent? How is the study being conducted and what are the controls? Are the researchers conflicted?
How will it be determined if the outcomes are bad? Or is it a done deal that the results will be favorable to the government’s support of HIT vendors from their lobbying efforts?
Just slip a little unproven CPOE and CDS into patients’ care and hope that it will not result in delays, duplicate medications, incorrect tests, and dysfunctional communication! What is the difference between using an unapproved medication and unapproved CPOE equipment? No great problem, just a few deaths here and there.
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I am an Internist and I clearly understand the need of HIE in improving the patient care. I practice in Brevard county Florida, and my main practice is caring for the Elderly. Their demographic varies from very complicatedwith multiple medical history, going to different variety of consultants and frequent visits to hospitals, Nursing homes and the Home health agency. It gets even more complex as some will go to VA or some are snowbirds who again have split follow ups with different physicians. The question is who is in charge following up their labs, their preventive workup, meds refill and even track med changes at different levels of care.
Despite health care in Brevard county being ahead of the curve as far as Information Technology is concerned, I still see there are layers of communication missing, Imposing danger to the patient care. Out of this frustration came the idea of a distributed storage Health Information Exchange connecting all entities involved in the care. The cost for this HIE, Sushoo, is very minimal (about $80 per month per provider), yet it helps all of those involved in the care openly communicate through secured gateways. We went alive with Sushoo – an Independent Health Information Exchange on Oct 2 nd 2009. So far we have more than 50 users (level 1 and Level 2 Inclusive) based in Brevard county and working on Integrating with Different EMRS and expected to have more than 150 users (physicians) by Jan 2010. Already there are positive talks with 2 local hospitals in the positive direction. One radiology center and one sleep center have committed to get on board and we are working on their integration. There is One ALF and one Nursing home have committed and we expect their Gateway will be ready by the end of January 2010.
The advantage of the Sushoo, or any other distributed storage, is that it is very flexible , affordable and automated. On a long run it is estimated to save upto 17,000 dollars per yr per physician and it is sustainable with out draining any one of the stake holders or tax payers.
For the Majority of the services to our county, we offered it for free or charge very minimal to pay for our cost. This is our contribution for our county. We are also trying to integrate with the VA and the airforce systems locally. We are still waiting to hear from The VA and Airforce system, even though their physicians I have talked to have shown interest. But I think connecting them is a must given the fact many of the VA patients have a physician or a hospital in the community for all their emergency needs but still like to go to VA for getting meds for free or keep their benefits. The wide gap in communication among the team causes redundant testing and at times mismanagement and frustration among the patients and physicians. I would like to see if we can get your support and possible assistance in Integrtaing to VA and patrick airforce system in brevard. I see if we get the support from National HIT team we can achieve connecting the entire brevard health care team caring for more than 500,000 patients before the end of 2010 at a very reasonable cost. This can even be the model for HIT implementations in other areas.
I would appreciate any input from you or your associates.
Geetha Priyanka, MD
May I remind that any rule of thumb, applied indiscriminately, is usually a mistake. This is especially true where human rights are concerned. This “keep the government out of HIT, always and forever, no matter what” attitude and that of many others with cavalier attitudes about HIT seems one of “live and let die” … that is, let people die so HIT may live.
I see that ideology especially in those who argue against FDA regulation of HIT because it will “impair innovation.”
I hope this and other projects in the future can be a success. We really need some positive momentum to take us into 2010.
One of the things that could get lost in the aggressive time frame is the impact on the people that have to implement the changes. The impact where real work gets done is often left out of the equation of implementation until last. It would be prudent to conduct change readiness analysis to see what needs to be done to have the environment right to implement the massive IT changes.
I think they try to address that by adding the criteria that the community has already demonstrated a level of capability. It’s just funding to do more of the same and provide examples to other communities that haven’t even started. That’s the way I read it anyway.
I read this post via the twitter feed. It was interesting to see both sides of the what will be an ongoing story.
I read this post via the twitter too, and interesting to see both sides of the what will be an ongoing story. Then I follow here.
I don’t quite follow all your logic but I think I can answer your question of why healthcare needs to be dragged kicking and screaming. The answer is simple. Money and competition is the answer. Would General Motors spend money so it can share information about its customers with Ford? Or would they spend their money so they can blow Ford in to oblivion? I think the latter and unfortunately this is how healthcare works now.
Many will not believe this but healthcare is not lucrative enough to allow competitors to cooperate with each other any more than they have to. The business side of healthcare is disgusting and we should all be ashamed.
The government has helped create an environment that is adverse to sharing information and working together. You are asking an entire industry that is inherently competitive and has lost focus of what’s important (patient care) to change dramatically almost over night. Without government funding providers are NOT going to spend their own money to improve patient care unless it improves their bottom line. Spending money on an information exchange does not bring in additional revenue. Unless the government funds such projects it will never get done. I know first hand how this works since I’ve participated in what used to be called CHIN’s (Community Health Information Networks) and are now called RHIO’s (Regional Health Information Networks). All except one or two CHIN’s failed miserably and so will RHIO’s unless the government funds it.
I have numerous examples of hospitals and physician practices that have had opportunity to improve care in the community using shared systems but have passed so they could pursue their own interests that have nothing to do with improving care. There are a few communities that are the exception but for the most part there’s not a lot of collaboration going on.
I read this post via the twitter feed. It was interesting to see both sides of the what will be an ongoing story.
Despite health care in Brevard county being ahead of the curve as far as Information Technology is concerned, I still see there are layers of communication missing, Imposing danger to the patient care. Out of this frustration came the idea of a distributed storage Health Information Exchange connecting all entities involved in the care.
thank you very march
I think the Beacon Communities could be a great avenue for modeling effective use of information technology to improve quality and lower costs. My only concern is that the aggressive timelines are going to mean that it will be difficult for many groups to meet the criteria to qualify. I also hope to see the transparency that this administration has advocated continued throughout the process. Clear explanations for why each grantee was denied or chosen need to be published so that there is not a whiff of scandal. This is still a lot of money (even though it may seem insignificant compared with the billions and trillions of dollars that are being discussed in health reform) and millions of dollars can make the difference between successful programs and failure.
I look forward to seeing these communities evolve and hope to hear some fantastic success stories in the future.
thank you…
In the past the primary stakeholder was the hospital system not the payers so the vendors failed to provide much interoperability. The largest EMR vendor with over 125,000 doctors for example didn’t provide any way for hospitals in the same city with the same product the ability to share patient data (Kaiser, VA, Stanford, Palo Alto Medical for example)
You’re getting both fantabulous details. However will those picked out for involvement in that program be multifaceted and spokesperson (large and small, urban and rural, promising, advantageous and underserved) and eventually still be well out front in their adoption and use of wellness IT? I hope that we’ll see the bar somewhat got down for more belittled practices on lower resources, than for heavy multi-specialty groupings.
thank you. Perfect
While I think you’re referring mostly to clinical IT needs in your post, I’ve asked myself for years why there isn’t more effort put into preventive health technology. While I’m not an MD, I made (and maintain) the best contribution I can, which is an online exercise log (I called it Maintain Fit).
While that may seem silly, it’s been enabling people for nine years to track their fitness and even generate reports to physical therapists or doctors. Since it’s not tied to a single hospital the information is portable.
But you’re the doctor and I bet you’ve got a lot of ideas about what does and doesn’t work. I’ll leave the final say to you.
Ty for sharing Its very interesting that this “community” does not provide any option to real community-based small practices to participate in this grant process. I am afraid this is another PR stunt – all show, no substance. I will believe a government initiative when there is simplicity and transparency, neither of which I see in this initiative.
the e US Federal Government’s Beacon Community Program has been given $235 million of taxpayer money for “… interoperable health IT and standards-based information exchange within and among providers, hospitals, and populations” “within 15 diverse communities throughout the United States” (see announcement)
I guess any funding is better than none. However, the health system is in current financial state of affairs is more importatnt than ever.
This sure will be a bigger problem in the future. thank you for this post! Ruth
It sure will be! Will be interesting to see how it unfolds.
Again, thanks Ruth
I’ve seen many initiatives but most just make the headlines and disappear shortly after. I would like to see proper execution, rather than PR stunts.
I read this post via the twitter feed. It was interesting to see both sides of the what will be an ongoing story.
I agree! Can’t wait to see what the future holds…. very interesting
Cheers for sending me the link Kris… very interesting stuff
This is a great program, but I think that we need more emphasis on competition. Competition will bring out the best in each company, which will be a win-win for the best companies and for the consumer. Allow insurance companies to compete across state lines, and then institute tort reform so that the best companies can flourish.
I also hope to see the transparency that this administration has advocated continued throughout the process. Clear explanations for why each grantee was denied or chosen need to be published so that there is not a whiff of scandal. This is still a lot of money (even though it may seem insignificant compared with the billions and trillions of dollars that are being discussed in health reform) and millions of dollars can make the difference between successful programs and failure.
I anticipate that this important venture will achieve much in upcoming months/years.
Lets just hope it’s not more hot air that will amount to little or something few will qualify for. Good luck to the Beacon program. I truly hope they can “accelerate the progress of diverse communities that are leading the way.” One should support this highly worthwhile aim.
Thanks a lot for this wonderful post. I found this on a twitter feed a while back and really loved it.
Wow a lot of different views not all I agree with but Healthcare needs to be addressed and soon. Leaving it hanging around just makes things worse for everyone.
than you
very nice post, I don’t agree with all but Healthcare needs to be addressed and soon. Leaving it hanging around just makes things worse for everyone.
I read this very post through twitter It was facinating to know both sides of the what will be continues topic. I hope that this will not be a bigger problem in the future. Thanks for this post!
I think your study is amazing, and very well planned. IT’s always good to know that money can be well spent in these times.
I wish our Government would take a lesson. I believe in the old saying…an apple a day will keep the doctor a way.
Robert
Many of us know from complex successful real-world implementations that it is critical to engage all of the stakeholders (Patients, Providers, IT, finance) long before the actual implementation. Unless health IT allows providers to deliver higher quality, more efficient patient center care the project isn’t sustainable. Change however happens person by persona and it is often the one to one shared stories of success that serve as powerful levers in health IT adoption. This shared narrative and body of knowledge will also help to mitigate the natural resistance to change that we see reflected in media stories highlighting those organizations that are struggling to master these lessons on their own. Almost any provider knows that simply providing data or information to a patient only rarely brings about change and the same is true when we ask people who work in healthcare to change their own behavior
are right but are wrong acidanda
I think it would be helpful if these policies could be explained in simple English that is meaningful to the masses. Good communication is often overlooked and often the reason why plans fail.
Wow very different views of health and soon to be addressed all together, but I accept that. Only makes things worse for everyone hung around to leave
it’s not more hot air that will amount to little or something few will qualify for.
I think your study is amazing, and very well planned. I really appreciate that you inform me about this issue. Thank you.
I think your study is amazing, and very well planned. IT’s always good to know that money can be well spent in these times. I really appreciate that you inform me. Thank you
The government has helped create an environment that is adverse to sharing information and working together. You are asking an entire industry that is inherently competitive and has lost focus of what’s important (patient care) to change dramatically almost over night. Without government funding providers are NOT going to spend their own money to improve patient care unless it improves their bottom line. Spending money on an information exchange does not bring in additional revenue. Unless the government funds such projects it will never get done. I know first hand how this works since I’ve participated in what used to be called CHIN’s (Community Health Information Networks) and are now called RHIO’s (Regional Health Information Networks). All except one or two CHIN’s failed miserably and so will RHIO’s unless the government funds it.
I agree with your concerns. You have made some valid points…
It will be very intresting to see the end results!
Thanks
I have an autoimmune disorder and I am in and out of the doctor and hospital quite regularly. While I was in the process of getting diagnosed, I sometimes found the process of getting medical record transferred quite frustrating. With this said, I back Health IT 100%.
I agree with the affirmative for the majority of the post. Those with issues re IT in the industry should consider the European model
Anything that helps people get in and out of doctors’ offices and hospitals more quickly is a great idea in my opinion. I had a good friend in college who did not have working kidneys, he had to get blood transfusions twice weekly, after moving he went through a lot of trouble with his paperwork getting transferred from one doctor to another. Cheers for this plan!
I strongly agree with what you have said here, hope to see it all work out!
I judge countries by a level of Health care and education system,think its a real mirror.
For me a strong country is based on its people, their environment, their health and education system… Concerns about wealth of the country must not always rely on money and power. With such factors stated earlier, that i would say is a definition of wealth.
the health system is must be supported, what ever the way.. the important things is we serve a better health condition for humanity
I think that this is a great idea. In my experience, a lot of time is wasted on interns getting my medical history, asking me all those questions about my family’s medical background when I’m in so much pain. Hopefully this would help, especially in emergency cases.
This would be very good in emergencies. Getting a patient’s medical history as fast as possible is essential in life-threatening situations!
I hope it will be especially helpful in emergency situations.
I agree and think it a very good idea. I only wish that they would adopt this approach in Surrey, in the UK, especially in emergency cases.
Yes agree! This would be a very great help in emergency matters. It would be easy to take note of patients medical history.
very good in emergencies. Getting a patient’s medical history as fast as possible is essential in life-threatening situations!
Hi Dr. Blumenthal,
There are so many good uses of Govt funding and grants, certainly your points that just because some communities are less well-developed in their Health IT practices is no reason not to fund the Beacon Communities program. The EHR movement I think will prove invaluable for faster and even better patient care, especially in emergency room situations. Of course HIPPA and patient confidentiality will continue to be a concern. As the baby boomer generation continues to age and be such a large segment of the population with new demands on the healthcare system it will be interesting to see how the Beacon Community program helps serve that segment of the population having more health issues.
thank you for your contribution in explaining the rationale.
Sincerely,
April Braswell
What a great idea! It’s hard to believe that it wasn’t implemented years ago.
Examples of this are being tested in some countries already. For instance the shared patient profile/history.
A system that medical personnel can access, so all current patient-data is immediately available. Doctors have timely and up to date information regarding allergies, medication etc…
I believe that the program has some faults as well as advantages, The advantages would be faster response times in receiving critical lifesaving information in emergency situations, The bad side would be it gives more money and the opportunity for health care fraud which is so relevant in the United States.
My aunt who’s a physician told me about the HiTech Act and the Beacon Program.. I hope the funded money is put to good use.. sounds like a great program..
Mercen S
I really like this post which I have found in twitter. I agree with your words that the new communities should be encouraged. let us see how they will spend the money for healthcare and what the results would be?
Thanks for your post.
I believe that the program has some faults as well as advantages, The advantages would be faster response times in receiving critical lifesaving information in emergency situations, The bad side would be it gives more money and the opportunity for health care fraud which is so relevant in the United States.
I think that this is a great idea. In my experience, a lot of time is wasted on interns getting my medical history, asking me all those questions about my family’s medical background when I’m in so much pain. Hopefully this would help, especially in emergency cases.
I think anything that can lead to improved patient care, and save costs at the same time is going to be a project we should all be excited about.
I visited three southeast asia countries in the beginning of this year. It amazed me that though health services at major cities are well established, the poor who live in the remote (rural) area are still deprived from basic health care services (e.g. clinics & general practitioners). Due to late treatment, many curable diseases turn deadly.
As we continue to develop our health IT program in our nation, I think we should also be looking at how our achievements in health IT can be of helped the needy in less developed countries. Our goal in health IT might be to improve efficiency and save cost. To them, it can save LIVES. The distinction is huge indeed.
It’s of my opinion that, despite the economic situation and limitation in funding resources, we endeavor to help the less developed countries through our knowledge and technologies in health IT. This is the one thing that, I think, Beacon Community can widen their outreach and show our care, as a great nation, to the global community.
As a senior citizen now on Medicare, I am concerned that various doctors do not have access to the big picture and rely on me to fill them in.
I can see great benefits to having my doctors having access to my medical records.
I am concerned about safeguarding the privacy of these records. I used to be concerned because the insurance companies might mine them for reasons to deny coverage. Now I am concerned that government bureaucrats will mine these records for reasons to deny payment as health care costs become more and more expensive and money becomes tighter and tighter. See recent stories of BMI index data possibly used as a reason to deny some treatment because obesity is seen as a lifestyle decision. Obesity is not healthy, but never mind that some skinny people are unhealthy.
Medical records are at least as sensitive to privacy as financial records. I would hope that bulletproof methods of maintaining privacy accompany advances in making medical data available only to my doctors and to no one else.
I don’t see how that is possible because of the paying part where Medicare bureaucrats know what bills are coming in and for what. It would be fairly easy for such a bureaucrat to have a very good picture of my health and then start making some simplistic assumptions about the return on investment of the cost of this care versus the cost of treating a younger person, one who will be paying taxes for presumably a longer time than I will.
I am going to have to agree with Bill on how these systems are allowed to be accessed and about their purpose being very specific. If someone can abuse one of these systems they surely will sooner or later.
However, it is not when everything is great and you have a cold and go in to see the doctor for a little more powerful solution for your pain and the treatment of symptoms that this really comes into play.
It is when you are on vacation 2,000 miles from your primary care physician and you are t-boned by someone who missed a red light that the nature of accessibility comes into play for your entire family in a triage environment. At that moment care givers simply need as much information as humanly possible to save lives. We should be cautious and continue keep our focus on the Health, Safety and Welfare of our people.
Trust me when I say that you want “advanced health information exchange capabilities” when you are the one involved.
I totally agree that it is now time that we move forward to in co creative partnerships with other sister organizations. In some ways one asks why have not these steps be taken before. At least I feel more hopeful that there progressive measures been taken towards improving the help system. What I like about the article is that it presented a new angle that I have not seen before, using I.T to enable health physicians to be more effective in their practice.
Anything that can expedite the time spent in the waiting room and get the patients the treatment they need as soon as possible, is a welcome addition to any healthcare situation
This has to be supported I am from the UK and we are trialling a system of better sharing medical history and I cant believe it isn’t already in place , not long ago I had an incident where I needed to be taken to hospital, now I wasn’t in my local town so they had no details on me and I was a bit dazed and confused so couldn’t really answer many important medical questions. They eventually got my details into their system and I was treated. I returned to my local doctors several days later to discuss what happened with my doctor but they had no record of the incident and had to spend a few hours chasing up the history and the details of the treatment provided before he could recommend any further treatment. All in all a lot of time is wasted when tracking down medical histories something need to be done.
I am going to have to agree with Barry 100%. Anyone who has sat in an Emergency Room for any period of time can see that precious minutes drastically affect the lives of the critically injured on a consistent basis. This is why so many smaller private critical care and outreach facilities are popping up across the country today.
The Health, Safety and Welfare of the patient are the #1 objective. Anything that moves the medical industry in that direction should definitely be explored and tested for large scale improvements.
This approach should be bought out ASAP in hospitals and Doctors practices throughout the UK.
Government please take note.
This could and will save hours and hours of wasted time searching patient records.
If the goverment wants to save money get this implemented straight away there is no time to lose…
Anything that will make things easier and faster I’m all in favor for. Why isn’t everyone use this.
Patient care needs to be looked over more. This is a great concept and hopefully it will improve now that it is passed. Anyway to help out the health care system is a good thing.
I know that this is great in order to get medical information around more efficiently but what about people trying to hack in to see medical records? That would be my only concern. Other than that, its great.
In my experience, more time I waste on getting medical history when my sister needs emergency treatment. I think patient care is much more useful to all people. This would help for all emergency cases.
I think we’ve got to do whatever we can to fund the healthcare system. A better healthcare system means less sick people, which means less people unable to work, which means less of a burden on state and country.
I think many people would have concerns with the privacy aspects of certain personal information sharing and retention.
Having recently spent half a day at a hospital for only a few stitches, speed in processing would greatly benefit everyone. I think all would agree.
My question is, in the emergency medicine field, how does information sharing (communities concept) speed the processing of a patient?
I think this would definitely helpful in healthcare and I don’t think that they going to spend the whole money for healthcare. Yes I do agree with and it’s esecially helpful in emergency cases.
I am still a little bit afraid of what the government will try to do with all of our private health data in one location. With a push for nationalized health care I don’t want a gov official looking at my records and deciding that I have had too many problems in the past and therefor am not going to get the care I need because the gov has already spent too much on me.
It’s good to see IT used to improve quality of health services & therefore quality of life. As long as it doesn’t violate individuals privacy, I’m all for it. I do enjoy the fact that I don’t have to pass blood test in 10 different places, pretty ridiculous. At the end of the day it’s all about information sharing & more information brings to better quality.
There are many examples where an improvement in health IT can save lives by providing quick and efficient information to health providers. I hope that this program provides an accurate way to measure the improvements in health care cost, quality, and population health. If there are no accurate measurements then it will be unknown if the program was successful or what needs to be modified in order to make it successful.
Very much agreed! Getting a patient’s medical history as fast as possible is essential in life-threatening situations! We have to support the support systems in todays day in age.
I couldn’t agree more, there is nothing as crucial as a reliable health care system. I believe we all need to support any efforts to make it better. An efficient health care system means better health and it is cheaper in the long run. Who doesn’t like a healthy nation?
I have worked in health care IT for almost a decade. One of the things that I see on a regular basis is the struggle to get all PHI data onto a common platform for multiple patient care and billing systems. The vast array of HL7 messages and interfacing that has to take place to get a successful order or charge from one application to another is mind boggling.
Every day I work with skilled IT professionals who have to spend hours filtering through HL7 messages and other application specific information in an attempt to provide quality support to our users and patients. There are simply no easy fixes in health care IT and the government needs to spend more money getting hospitals and clinics around the country on systems that can easily and effectively communicate with each other.
I know that many new systems are in the works with companies like McKesson and Epic, but there really needs to be a driving force in the government to get all these systems on the same page to allow an IT system that physicians, caregivers and billers don’t have to struggle with to provide top quality medical care.
Hopefully we’ll see these kinds of changes being endorsed by the government soon.
You should consider implementing the Health IT network into nursing homes as well. When someone goes into a nursing home (for physical rehab for example), social workers are required to find adequate facilities (housing, home care, dialysis, etc.) before the patient can be released. Your concept could help provide better placement and more tailored services.
I was in a long term relationship with someone who suffers from Sickle Cell Anemia. It used to be one of the most frustrating and painstaking things in the world to watch her go into a crisis, rush her to the ER and have to wait an hour or more while they shuffled the people through that came before we did. Even moreso when we finally got into a room and had to wait while they dug through her extremely lengthy medical profile, amongst other things.
That was 5 years ago.
I actually saw a story on something similar to this earlier this year. I thought it was a brilliant idea. They showed some people walking through rooms with shelves full of millions of medical logs and histories… It made me wonder how much easier things would have been on not only my fiance, but any and everyone else.
Funding the health system is great but no matter how much money you throw at the problem you won’t be able to fix things until you can change the public’s mindset. It’s not enough to hold information sessions and have health care providers talk to their clients there has to be a fundamental change in the attitude and education of the public regarding the importance of taking responsibility for their health. It’s unfortunate, but you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink is too true. We could have the best technology in the world but if we don’t have a population who understand how it will help them then it will go to waste. Maybe there should be a program to get this information taught in health classes in schools.
I believe this health IT will help us a lot, and improve their overall health care performance
while cutting costs
With my experience with the IT industry (creating website backup software,internet tools etc.) and the prominent success of computer and internet industry, I believe that its success will also translate to the success of health IT
I think this is a fantastic health IT initiative and anything that can be a time saver, money saver and ultimately a life saver will be something that should be encouraged and if succesful rolled out across America to help thousands of people. It is important to ensure the IT equipment within the health sector becomes more efficient and more effective to enhance the quality of care for the patients and provide the best possible service.
I fully agree, it is for the people so the healthcare should be supported.