A new study reveals that 48 percent of American adults support creation of a nationwide system of medical records that would allow patients, physicians, and other health care providers to access personal health records through the Internet. The study, conducted by Morpace Market Research & Consulting, found that only 23 percent oppose such a system and 29 percent of consumers remain undecided on the issue.
While the study shows that consumers see potential benefits to universal electronic medical records, it also revealed the major hurdle to implementing such a system created by privacy concerns. These concerns include fear of identity theft and unauthorized access to an individual’s medical information by marketing firms, employers, and others.
Not surprisingly, the study also found that a majority of consumers believe the federal government should have a role in establishing rules and standards to protect the privacy and confidentiality of electronic medical records.
Susan Semack, vice president of the Health Care Practice at Morpace, noted that many survey participants had little knowledge about electronic health records (EHR).
“Four years ago President Bush signed an Executive Order mandating creation of a nationwide system of electronic medical records to facilitate the continuity of health care, but most people are not aware of this,” said Semack.
An EHR is a computerized medical file that can contain a variety of medical information including prescription records, test results, treatment histories, progress reports, and x-rays. According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), benefits for patients and physicians could include fewer medical errors and redundant procedures, faster diagnoses and treatment of serious illnesses, timely health screenings, better communication between patients and physicians, and shorter wait times for patients as well as lower operating costs for physicians.
In 2005, President Bush set a goal of most Americans having access to a secure, interoperable EHR by 2014. To oversee this effort, he created a central office at HHS, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).
Among a broad set of initiatives to support the implementation of health information technology (HIT) is the American Health Information Community (AHIC). In January 2008, HHS Secretary Leavitt announced that the public-private partnership would move to be based in the private sector and would develop a process to ensure that all key stakeholders in the public and private sectors are engaged and represented.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is entrenched in a five year demonstration project that aims to foster the implementation and adoption of EHRs and HIT more broadly as effective vehicles not only to improve the quality of care provided, but also to transform the way medicine is practiced and delivered. The program uses a series of financial incentives to physician practices based on how the practice has used EHR functionalities to change and improve how it operates.
What many Americans don’t realize is that the federal government already maintains two EHR systems within the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). DoD fully deployed AHLTA, its global electronic health record system, in 2006. According to the DoD, AHLTA impacts over 9 million beneficiaries, and in any given week records 642,400 outpatient encounters and 19,600 inpatient admissions in military facilities.
The use of EHRs in the VHA system has an even longer history. Development began on a program in the early 1980s, when information systems were still in their infancy in Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) medical facilities. This system has been incorporated into the current Veterans Health Information System and Technology Architecture (VISTA), which was introduced in 1996 and has been used nationally since 1999. Today VISTA is used at more than 1,300 VA facilities and maintains records on 5 million veterans. The system is also available publicly and has been adapted for use in many non-VA hospitals and healthcare networks. More recently VHA has introduced a program called MyHealtheVet which will, in the future, allow veterans to view appointments, copay balances, and key portions of their medical record online.
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