Thursday, October 20, 2011

Electronic Health Records

Medical costs have been escalating for the past few decades. As people get older, they have to spend more on health care. The experts have identified ways to improve the efficiency of health care and to cut down on wastage. They have suggested that electronic medical records of each person, that is available to their doctors can cut down on repeated tests.

President Obama actively proposed the creation of a central system to keep the health records. Google launched its innovative Google Health system to meet this need. But Google has decided to scrap this system, due to insufficient interest to use it. It seems that electronic medical record will not take off, at least for the immediate future.

What is the problem? If escalating health care cost has to be contained, why did these initiatives fail? Why are people reluctant to use electronic health records - which can help to improve efficiency and bring down cost?

Which of these factors are most important?

1) Doctors want to keep control of the records, so that the patients will keep going back to them
2) The Government failed to pass the law to give political support to these measures
3) Patients are reluctant to have their health records kept electronically
4) Consumers are weak in enforcing their rights and interest.

Please share  your views here.




5 comments:

financialray said...

Hi Mr Tan,

Is there a correlation bet electronic records and health care costs in the first place?
If I do a battery of tests at Mt E, I can always request a copy of the results and the Xrays/scans. So I am free to show to any dr or specialist if I want to seek 2nd opinion or show my family dr.
Main thing about electronic records is that it is useful if the population is not so educated and cannot tell what medications or what tests they have done. This however should not be the case as Singaporeans are getting better educated nowadays.
I feel confidentiality is a main issue. Singapore is not very big and it is scary if any medical professional can assess your medical file electronically without your consent.
Healthcare costs is escalating because like the handphones, medical gadgets also getting more sophisticated. We are no longer in X ray generations, nowadays it is about PET scans. Also, newer medicines are also getting more expensive because of research.

Anonymous said...

Having electronic records may save on health care costs, but question is how big is the savings? A major part of total health care costs? And will the savings apply in most cases?

It's like I have to spend $10 but with electronic health records I can save 50 cents. And that's only when I want to switch doctors, otherwise no savings at all. And how many or often people want to switch doctors?

Sometimes one needs to apply Pareto principle to look for cost saving.

Don't waste time and effort to try to save on "peanuts" when you already spend a lot and cannot save on big ticket items.

Anonymous said...

I support electronic records from the point of view of patient safety.

If a patient is allergic to a particular type of drug (e.g. penicillin), it's better if info. is available for easy access.

Especially if patient is knocked unconscious (eg accident) and unable to inform emergency room doctors.

Better safety means fewer mistakes means lower medical and legal costs.

Tan Kin Lian said...

Here are the results of my Facebook survey. See http://www.facebook.com/notes/tan-kin-lian/electronic-health-record-how-to-overcome-the-poor-response/206412912764702

Tan Kin Lian said...

I have visited doctors and dentists. Each person wants to keep my personal records. I have to pay them for the records and also waste my time. It is so wasteful to have duplicate records, when they can be shared in a central location.

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