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February 13, 2009The Stimulus Package - still containing $20 billion in Health IT funding - looks set to pass at any time. Most physicians and healthcare industry professionals seem to support the funding, which will stimulate a the widespread adoption of EMRs that many in the industry have been working on for many years. However, questions are being raised about how the money will actually be channeled to ensure that implementation takes place. Healthcare industry leaders and EMR software specialists will need to step forward and play an active role in ensuring that this money does its job. As the New York Times reported today:
“So it looks as if the nation’s taxpayers are going to spend about $20 billion to accelerate the use of computerized medical records. In his press conference Monday night, President Obama went out of his way to explain why that money belonged in the economic stimulus package. It is, he said, a job-creating investment in both the present and the future that will improve the quality of care and save lives.
“But in a letter delivered Tuesday to the White House and Congressional offices, 50 of the nation’s leading experts in electronic health records — most of them physicians themselves — warned that “an historic opportunity to achieve quality and efficiency gains through health information technology will be lost,” unless the government channels the spending carefully.
“Just throwing money at doctors, they say, is not going to work. “The challenge is going to be all about implementation,” said Dr. Blackford Middleton, chairman of the Center for Information Technology Leadership, a research arm of Partners Healthcare, a big nonprofit medical group in Boston that includes Massachusetts General Hospital. “Where is the money going to flow and what is the mechanism of implementation?”
Read the full article: “Electronic Health Records: How to Spend the Money Wisely“. EMR software leaders such as McKesson and Practice Partner are already taking steps to ease the implementation by setting up resources, information networks and support mechanisms for physicians who will soon be making the EMR transition. Many industry leaders don’t believe small and independent practices will be able to make the transition to EMRs on their own, even with the funding, and believe that leadership within the industry will be key to making this effort a success.
“I asked Dr. Farzad Mostashari, the assistant commissioner in the New York City Department of Health in charge of the primary care information project, what he’s learned. “There is no way that small practices, especially in underserved areas, can effectively implement electronic health records on their own,” he said. “To get a public benefit, and widespread adoption, just giving cash to doctors is not going to work.”
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