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Records
By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee A majority of health-care executives believe electronic
health-records systems will have a positive long-term financial impact on
their organizations, despite costs and other barriers to adoption,
according to a Capgemini report.
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The survey, conducted last month, of 84 executives from hospitals, health insurers, physician groups, and health-care business-technology vendors shows that 70% expect that E-health records will provide financial and clinical value to their organizations. "Health care is a financially strapped industry. Organizations are looking for new ways to streamline their operations," says Lewis Redd, national leader of Capgemini's health practice. "Now technology is front and center in the health-care arena to bring about change."
Deployment of electronic health-records systems and other technology can reduce costs, including those related to medical mistakes that occur when doctors and clinicians don't have comprehensive and timely access to patient information such as drug allergies and medical histories. But the adoption of these technologies presents clear challenges, with capital costs being the biggest obstacle, survey respondents say. For example, the capital investment required for clinical systems, including electronic health records, could hit between $50 million and $100 million for a health-care operation with two or three hospitals participating, and could take an average of two years to deploy, Redd says.
On a positive note, once the systems have been installed and are up and running for about five years, an organization could save $15 million per year by eliminating unnecessary or redundant tests on patients, reducing medical errors, and simplifying processes that require manual paperwork by clinicians and other health-care workers, he says.
Still, electronic health systems face hurdles beyond cost outlays. Among the other obstacles surveyed executives identify are the resistance of physicians and lack of technology infrastructure at doctors' offices, especially small practices.
"If we don't have small physicians' offices to be part of
this, we fail," said Dr. David Brailer, the federal government's first health IT
czar, during a presentation last month at the Health Information Technology
Summit in Washington, D.C. The federal government has set a goal to have a
national health IT infrastructure in place to support making electronic health
records available to most Americans within a decade.
Many doctors are reluctant to make financial investments in deploying and supporting these sorts of technologies. That's because the bulk of the payback doesn't financially benefit their practices but, instead, predominately helps health-care payers, including Medicare and health plans. Also, the deployment of electronic health records and other business technology frequently causes major workflow disruptions at doctors' practices, particularly among office staffs.
The Capgemini report also cites factors that executives say contribute to slowing the adoption of E-health records. These factors include the lack of clear technology standards, increased workloads for already-stressed IT staffs, concern that E-health-record systems require additional time and attention from nursing staffs, and the need for greater collaboration among various health-care players such as insurance payers and health plans to get the full benefit of sharing electronic health information.
Despite the challenges, 88% of the executives say their organizations have either already begun addressing the adoption of digital health records or expect to do so within six months.
