Studies Show Electronic Medical Records Make Financial Sense

The article provides statistics that show a potential savings of $162 billion per year in the US alone.

Is there anyone out there that does not think EHR is the best move for healthcare?

I think portability is the most critical piece. Most of us see more than one provider, and may even visit multiple hospitals. The ability to easily obtain records at various sites is the important and challenging piece of the puzzle.

What do you

From health care fortress to IT showcase:

In bringing users onto the electronic medical records system, the Cook County Bureau of Health Services used a soft-sell approach.First, staffers made the system view-only, so employees could experiment with it. Then they poured terabytes of live data, including charts, notes and orders, into the system."So when we said, 'Great. Start placing orders,' they understood they weren't using the system just so that we could replace a clerk, but so they could benefit from the information," said Mike Sommers, the bureau's chief information officer.

PCMA Article:

"WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 /U.S. Newswire/ -- New studies released today finding that widespread adoption of health information technology (IT) -- including electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) -- has the potential to save billions of dollars annually on health care costs and prevent more than two million adverse drug events underscore the need for uniform, national e-prescribing standards that will accelerate adoption of these systems throughout the entire health care system, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) said today. PCMA is the national association representing America's pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)."

Dvorak Uncensored � The Digital Hospital:

"Aside from possible privacy issues, a potential problem with this would have shown up in New Orleans. You need power to access electronic records.Government push might spell the end of paper records � If President George W. Bush has his way, every American patient should have an electronic medical record by 2015 as part of an executive order released April 27 that includes the formation of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology."

Other national and regional pharmacy chains are jumping on the APM bandwagon. You can read the article from Business Wire here. The article mentions a couple of vendors offering these products in the United States. One of the vendors, ddn corp., has an overview on their website.
The features include:
? Over 1,000 "standard" item capacity
? Small footprint
? Bar code verification at initial loading and pickup
? "Smart" package identification
? Auto inventory verification upon bulk loading
? Digital imaging camera
? Attractive appearance
? Quiet operation
? Front and rear access
? 17" color touch screen
? Back-lit signature pad
? Quick access to printer
? Manual override access in case of power failure

Another spin on APM's

It looks like other community chain pharmacies are jumping on the pseudo-APM bandwagon. This pharmacy in New York State is installing them in their stores. They have the ability to video conference between the pharmacist and the patient. No drugs are housed in the machine, it just gives you the ability to request refills, fax new prescriptions to the pharmacy of your choice, and speak with a live pharmacist. This is very interesting.

What are your thoughts?

Interested in knowing what those Pharmaceutical Reps that visit your pharmacies are really like? Want to know what they talk about when they are among their colleagues?

You have got to scour these forums. I like the Darkened Sample Closet the most. These people truly are crude. Have a look for yourself.

Not to pump the site, but I ran across it this evening. They claim to have some interactive and live video content. I will test it out and post comments. Just another CE site, or the evolution of CE based learning? Let us know! Check it out here

That is right! It appears that MedivoxRX Technologies has released a talking pill bottle. The target audience includes patients that are not able to see (blind) or have trouble reading. A great idea. I can see this benefit our seniors and impaired patients. The real question becomes just how difficult is it to program the information into the component?
The company claims that "Rex", the name of the talking pill bottle includes a software package that integrates with pharmacy computer systems. It captures the electronic label information and sends it to a piece of equipment that translates the text to voice and writes it to the pill bottle.

If talking pill bottles are not your cup of tea, see what you think about these vending machines that dispense prescriptions to paying customers. The LA Times article mentions the RPh labor shortage as a catalyst for this type of service offering. No counseling, no drug interaction screening, no PROFESSIONAL JUDGEMENT. Of course, this has been approved in the state of CA only, and for refills to boot. Very interesting technology. As professionals, we can not sit around and expect problems in our industry to work themselves out.