US Healthcare Systems
Module 1 – Article Summary
Jon Reed
Conn, J. (2013).
Riding the wave
This article deals with the
government’s requirements for electronic health records (EHR), and how
different health care providers are taking vastly different approaches. Some
providers are striving to get to and stay on the cutting edge of information
technology (IT), while others are still using paper records with the vast
majority of providers left somewhere in between. One health group in California
which includes a 409 bed hospital and multiple providers working out of
multiple facilities plans on implementing a bar-code medication administration
system and setting up a data warehouse for patient records, which should enable
it to track patients as they move through the system, manage the overall health
of its patient population and learn from its experiences (Conn, 2013). The
hospital also plans to add a patient portal, which it sees as key to involving
patients in their own care and a crucial part in improving population health
while lowering overall healthcare costs (Conn, 2013). I thought this related to
the article that James posted about our ranking in population health. Some analysts are predicting a huge explosion
in IT spending over the next few years from providers doing more of what this
California provider is doing. On the flip side the more pessimistic analysts
are predicting that these expenditures are strictly due to the government
incentive programs that have already spent most of the funds. Many are predicting that as soon as the
government mandates are met that the care providers will turn to making all of
the budget cuts possible due to lower reimbursement checks causing them to
operate on thinner margins (Conn, 2013). Who knows what will happen in the next
few years as the government mandates for providers and the government insurance
programs go into effect. From this
article I gathered that there are a lot of predictions, but no one really
knows. The one thing that I think we can all be sure of is that there are
changes coming to our field, and we all hope they are good ones.
Reference
Conn, J.
(2013). Riding the wave. Modern Healthcare,43(20), 6-7.
Retrieved
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