The way we track health care is changing, and holdouts against electronic records will eventually be swept away in the tide of history, says Newt Gingrich.
“Doctors need to be [acclimated] from day one to a paperless environment and to working together as a team,” Gingrich said. “It?s going to require a major change in thinking. I think you can be patient about it, you can be understanding about it, but I don?t think you can back off.”
The former House speaker spoke to hospital information technology professionals hosted by Siemens Medical Solutions USA on Monday in Baltimore.
Electronic medical records are gaining ground, touted for reducing errors and improving emergency care.
Microsoft and Google are working on personal electronic health records, and the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services is offering financial incentives for doctors willing to become pioneers. In addition, Medicare will no longer allow hospitals to bill for preventable errors.
The plans still face resistance from doctors leery of the cost of going electronic and training and testing new systems, as well as the potential cost of ending up with an obsolete system as the market weeds out some developers.
Dr. Jonathan M. Sternlieb, a gastroenterologist and medical IT officer for a major Philadelphia health system, knows the frustrations of making the system work.
“I see waste every day, both in my practice, which is basically paperless, and in my hospital, which is totally wireless,” he said. Patients get duplicate tests, duplicate scans and inefficient lab work “because all our systems aren?t integrated. There?s not a unified database.”
That?s not how it?s supposed to work, said Dr. Don Rucker, chief medical officer for Siemens, who said government programs help improve systems to run more seamlessly.
“A lot of it?s going to be driven by reimbursing at a higher level for those who commit to electronic records,” Rucker said.
