Sun 18 Feb 2007
If No Doctor Reads Your PHR, Does it Really Exist?
Posted by Jean under My Own PHR Journey , PHRs and the Real WorldI mentioned in my last post the terrific health insurance my husband’s employer provides us. My husband works at a major medical center in Pennsylvania and so as long as we go to a physician within the network we have no out-of-pocket expenses.
I’m going to repeat that (I like to write it): We have no out-of-pocket expenses.
So I’m a middle-aged woman in the middle of the health care candy store.
I’ve made dental appointments. I’ve made eye doc appointments. And I’ve made an annual physical appointment for myself, an appointment that is long overdue.
I went to the first part of the appointment last week.
You read correctly – the first part of the appointment.
The physician I chose has a practice far from the medical center but close to our home, yet I’m slightly regretting my decision, for my new general practitioner first wanted to see me, have a little chat, have a little "getting to know you" one-on-one before she performed the actual physical. She also scheduled me for a mammogram (at a nearby facility), and some blood to be taken (also at a different nearby facility) so that she’d have the results back in time for the real physical appointment two weeks from our first.
So I’ve been a road warrior of sorts, driving hither and thither going to my appointments to be pricked in the arm (blood work) and smushed in the breasts (mammogram).
But, I keep telling myself, We have. No. Out-of-pocket. Expenses.
And I like my new doc. We laughed. We showed each other pictures of our kids. We bonded.
And the mammogram facility gave me my results while I waited. Nothing suspicious said hi on the X-ray.
It was a good day.
Except.
EACH place asked me to fill out a form. Many forms. Address. Age. Social Security Number. Health Insurance name and number. And, since he’s the one carrying the insurance through his employer, my husband’s name, birthdate, SSN. The same damn information each and every time.
It didn’t matter that I had the printout of my personal health record with me. It meant nothing to these medical offices. Nothing.
Yet it wasn’t a total loss. I had everything with me, neat and tidy. I could copy it from my PHR printout to the office’s form. Easy.
But if these offices had been connected electronically — if they had had an electronic medical record system – it would have been better.
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April 3rd, 2007 at 10:03 am
Jean,
I completely agree with your plight. I just wanted to add my two cents.
For the past two years, my company has been marketing a portable personal health record that you can carry on your key chain. We made the strategic decision in the beginning that we would not operate as an online record. We help our clients by scanning medical, dental, eye and legal records onto the key. And keep them updated by following up every six weeks to note any changes.
Repeated studies over the past three years indicate that better than 60% of Americans do not want their personal medical records available on the Internet. And recently, several key individuals sitting on committees at the Federal level who are responsible for establishing privacy standards for electronic medical records have quit their posts due to their inability to make any progress.
But I digress. This past week, my mother-in-law (who carries one of our PHRs) was admitted to the hospital for complications with COPD (emphysema). She was in the same hospital in January for a related problem. This hospital has made significant strides in automating their medical records, however in practice apparently nothing has changed. After they refused to plug in the PHR (”We’re worried about computer viruses”), we answered the same questions to multiple individuals in the ER for 12 hours. When she finally was admitted to her room, the nurses started all over again, never looking at the COW (Computer on Wheels) that had all the answers.
I believe the culture of medicine is a significant part of the problem here. Nurses, doctors, all, are not taking the time to read even summary information. I admit I do like the bedside manner thing, but not at the expense and expediency of reviewing the available data. If we were not there to properly address medication questions, etc. my 84 year old mother-in-law may well have sent them in a completely different direction.
So I believe the real benefits of electronic medical records - less medication and medical errors and a public better informed about their own care - are not hindered by a lack of technology. They will not be realized until the caregivers themselves take advantage of what PHRs and EMRs have to offer.
April 30th, 2007 at 2:04 am
The problems with PHRs is that physicians are the keepers of patient data today. That data resides in the physician’s office - on paper (for the most part). Because of this, PHR vendors will not be able aggregate patient data - forcing patients to to enter it themselves. The has traditionally not worked e.g. RelayHealth, Medem, etc. our CEO talks more about it here: http://practicefusion.typepad.com/weblog/2007/01/intelcisco_doss.html Regards, Jonathan Seb
May 3rd, 2007 at 2:15 am
When Patients are empowered with Simple intuitive tools like worldmedcard.com the outcome can be much better. I have used this to track my mother’s records with various HC Specialist while I live 300+ miles away. I can print these off & fax if needed to the Physicians office. Give them a try and you will be happy to see the ease of use.