U.S. Doctors Embracing Electronic Health Records: Survey

TUESDAY, July 17 (HealthDay News) -- A majority of U.S. physicians have now adopted an electronic health record system as part of their routine practice, a new national survey reveals.

The finding is based on responses provided by nearly 3,200 doctors across the country who completed a mail-in survey in 2011. The survey was conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics as part of an ongoing three-year effort (continuing through 2013) designed to assess perceptions and practices regarding electronic health record systems.

Specifically, the poll found that 55 percent of U.S. doctors have embraced some type of electronic health record system. And roughly 75 percent of those who have done so reported that the type of system they took on meets the criteria of playing a "meaningful" role in their practice, according to the terms of 2009 federal legislation (entitled the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act) designed to promote the use of electronic health records.

What's more, 85 percent of those doctors who now have an electronic health record system in place said they are either "somewhat" or "very" satisfied with its day-to-day operations (47 percent and 38 percent, respectively). And three in four said patient care has improved as a result of electronic health record adoption.

The poll also indicated that among those who have yet to embrace an electronic health record system, almost half said they plan to do so in the coming year.

Physician age seems to have played a role in how likely a doctor was to have already brought an electronic health record system into their practice, the findings showed. While 64 percent of those under the age of 50 have done so, the poll revealed that the same was true of only 49 percent among those aged 50 and older.

Office size also seems to matter, with larger physician practices being more likely to have incorporated an electronic health record system into their administrative infrastructure. Specifically, 86 percent of offices with 11 or more physicians on site had taken on such a system, compared with roughly 60 percent to 62 percent of those with two to 10 physicians and just under 30 percent of single-doctor practices.

But although some kinds of specialists (such as surgeons) were somewhat less likely to have implemented an electronic health record system, race, gender and physician location did not seem to play a role in the likelihood that a doctor's office would or would not bring the technology into their workplace.

Eric Jamoom, of the health care statistics division of the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, and colleagues published their findings July 17 in the NCHS Data Brief.

More information

For more on electronic health records, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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TELUS Health to Support Newfoundland and Labrador in Expansion of the Newfoundland and Labrador Electronic Health ...

MONTREAL , May 30, 2012 /CNW/ - TELUS Health today announced it has signed an agreement with the Newfoundland & Labrador Centre for Health Information (the Centre) to support the next phase in the province's deployment of an interoperable Electronic Health Record (iEHR).

The Centre's interoperable Electronic Health Record/Labs (iEHR/Labs) program is the next phase in Newfoundland & Labrador's implementation of an iEHR and will make important health information available to clinicians across the province. This new agreement continues the working relationship developed between the Centre and TELUS Health, which drew extensively on TELUS' technology capability to begin deploying the Pharmacy Network. The Pharmacy Network project delivered a core component of an EHR with the Health Information Access Layer (HIAL), in addition to a drug repository that connects the community pharmacies. The iEHR/Labs program will leverage this technology to support the additional iEHR information domains and components that will be implemented through this next phase.

"We are extremely pleased to continue our successful relationship with the Centre and work with the province of Newfoundland & Labrador on such an important initiative," says Glenn De Roy, vice president of Health Delivery Solutions for TELUS Health Solutions. "Deploying iEHR will give authorized health professionals secure, real-time access to critical health information, ensuring that Newfoundlanders receive better, more efficient care delivery."

In 2009, the Centre began deploying the Pharmacy Network, which connects pharmacies with a central, province-wide Drug Information System. Since then, more than 75 pharmacies have joined, covering more than 185,000 patients (about 34% of the province's population). The network currently contains 2.9 million medication dispense records, a figure which is increasing daily. More importantly, there have been more than 27,000 instances of shared information, meaning a pharmacist had access to additional information in delivering care to their client.

Designed and created by TELUS Health to meet Canada Health Infoway EHR Blueprint specifications, the HIAL, as a core component of the NL EHR, manages interactions between clinical systems (pharmacy management systems, hospital information system, physician EMRs, etc.), provincial repositories (drug, lab, shared health records, etc.) and provincial registries (client, provider, location and user). In addition to providing the first version of the HIAL contained within the Pharmacy Network, TELUS Health also provided the provincial Drug Information System, a medication management portal and a data warehouse. Since 2009, TELUS Health has also worked in partnership with the Centre in supporting the Pharmacy Network's production environment, through its managed services offering.

As part of the iEHR/Labs program, TELUS Health will extend HIAL services to include support for additional HL7 messages to support Lab and Shared Health Record interactions. A service will be added to manage the clinical terminologies associated with the expanded set of health information.  TELUS Health will also leverage its strategic relationship with HIPAAT to integrate HIPAAT's leading Privacy eSuite consent management service into the HIAL, which will add patient-centered privacy protection to all healthcare information. Committed to industry standards, TELUS Health will continue to align the solution to Canada Health Infoway's vision and standards.

TELUS Health will work with the Centre and other members of the project team to begin deployment of the new technology in 2013.

About TELUS Health
TELUS Health is a leader in telehealth, electronic health records, remote patient monitoring, mobile home and community care, consumer health, benefits management and pharmacy management. Our solutions give health authorities, providers, physicians, patients and consumers the power to turn information into better health outcomes. For more information about TELUS Health, please visit www.telushealth.com.

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Can Health Care Orgs Maintain Trust With Electronic Records?

Guest post written by S. Joe Bhatia and Rick Kam

S. Joe Bhatia is CEO of the American National Standards Institute, ANSI. Rick Kam is president and co-founder of ID Experts.

You don’t want your personal health information to spread virally around the Internet. Save that for the talking baby videos on YouTube.

The truth is, the electronic health information of millions of patients can be breached in a matter of seconds. As the industry moves from paper records to electronic health records (EHR), protected health information (PHI) is now more susceptible to exposure than ever.

The White House just published the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, stating that “trust is essential to maintaining the social and economic benefits that networked technologies bring to the United States and the rest of the world.”

Trust is a precious thing. Trust is the cornerstone of solid doctor-patient relationships. We also trust that our health-care providers will protect our confidential patient information. That trust is at the core of the viability of our health care delivery system. Without it, the entire industry will crumble and put patients at risk. Yet as the industry moves toward EHR adoption, that trust is being seriously tested.

In February 2009, the U.S. Senate passed an $838 billion stimulus bill, in part to enable the digitization of every American’s medical record – a move that President Obama said would improve the quality and lower the cost of health care. To ensure a paperless health care system, the federal government set up financial incentives and a five-year deadline.

With the 2014 deadline approaching, health care industry leaders are at a crossroads. Investment in adopting policies and procedures to better protect patients’ information must increase, yet the boardroom appears to be at odds with the staff responsible for corporate security and privacy.

The stakes are high and the challenge is growing. There are 5,754 registered hospitals in the U.S. with nearly 37 million patients admitted, according to the American Hospital Association. And the number of medical records compromised in the United States nearly doubled from 2010 to 2011, according to Redspin, a consulting firm.

The adoption of electronic health care records magnifies the risks of a data breach in ways that paper records never did. Hacking, theft, or loss of computing devices containing sensitive health information, and the use of unsecured mobile devices all increase the likelihood that a patient’s medical records will be exposed, endangering their physical and financial health.

A group of 100 industry leaders spent the last year examining the huge ramifications that a personal health information breach can have on health care organizations. They came together to offer suggestions for action, and to create a new model that will drive a more meaningful dialogue between those who are protecting vulnerable personal health information and corporate leadership. The report The Financial Impact of Breached Protected Health Information: A Business Case for Enhanced PHI Security enables health care organizations to make a business case for appropriate investments to better protect PHI. It is available for free download at webstore.ansi.org/phi.

The entire health care ecosystem – health care organizations, health plans, providers, payers, and support services – must take action to evaluate the “at risk” value of the protected health information with which they are entrusted, in order to determine the proper level of investment in their security initiatives. And they must do it before the trust erodes.

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ICSA Labs Certifies First Hospital Under Its Electronic Health Record Testing Program

LAS VEGAS, Feb. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- At the HIMSS Conference on Tuesday (Feb. 21), ICSA Labs announced its first certification of an IT system that is currently deployed by a hospital.  The hospital, Via Christi Health, earned the certification under ICSA Labs' electronic health record program.  Previous certifications had been limited to commercial off-the-shelf and open-source solutions.  

Via Christi Health, which provides a network of health care services via hospitals, doctors, specialty clinics and senior centers in Wichita and south central Kansas, demonstrated that its custom software is compliant with standards set forth by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology for electronic health records.  This certification from ICSA Labs demonstrates that Via Christi Health's software follows patient-care best practices and enables the secure exchange of patient records.

Via Christi Health uses its internally developed health IT software to help manage patient records throughout its facilities. In preparing to earn its ONC certification, Via Christi Health had to decide whether to invest in new software that was already certified or to certify and use the custom software the hospital system already had in place.

"Certifying our own software not only proved more cost effective for Via Christi Health, it was significantly less disruptive for our doctors and caregivers," said Dave Gestenslager, application architecture manager, Via Christi Health. "Instead of asking our doctors to switch to a new solution, our physicians were able to continue to use software with which they were already familiar. This enabled them to focus on delivering excellent patient care, instead of learning new technology."

Amit Trivedi, health care program manager, ICSA Labs, said: "By certifying its own software versus transitioning to new software, Via Christi Health is a great example of how certification for electronic health records promotes technology use in a meaningful way to allow for better economics and improved access to patient information.  The testing of custom EHR solutions for eligible providers and hospitals like Via Christi Health enables physicians and staff to effectively use certified health technology."

ICSA Labs is designated as an Authorized Testing and Certification Body by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, and is authorized to test complete EHR solutions as well as modular ones that address a specific IT function.  To learn more or enter a product into the testing process, visit ICSA Labs' Electronic Health Record Testing and Certification page.

NOTE: During HIMSS, follow us on Twitter @icsalabs and @verizonbusiness, hashtag #VZHIMSS. Visit us on Facebook for all the latest show activity.  

About ICSA Labs
ICSA Labs, an independent division of Verizon, offers third-party testing and certification of security and health IT products, as well as network-connected devices, to measure product compliance, reliability and performance for many of the world's top security vendors.  ICSA Labs is an ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accredited and 9001:2008 registered organization. Visit http://www.icsalabs.com and http://www.icsalabs.com/blogs for more information.

About Via Christi Health
Via Christi Health, a Catholic-sponsored ministry affiliated with Marian Health System and Ascension Health, is the largest provider of health care services in Kansas. Via Christi employs more than 10,000 in its hospitals, senior villages, physician offices and health services. In fiscal year 2011, it provided more than $82 million in community benefit to those it serves, including the poor. Visit viachristi.org.

About Verizon
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business, government and wholesale customers.  Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, with nearly 109 million total connections nationwide.  Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers in more than 150 countries, including all of the Fortune 500.  A Dow 30 company with $111 billion in 2011 revenues, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of nearly 194,000.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.  

VERIZON'S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speeches and biographies, media contacts, high-quality video and images, and other information are available at Verizon's News Center on the World Wide Web at www.verizon.com/news.  To receive news releases by email, visit the News Center and register for customized automatic delivery of Verizon news releases.

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Electronic Health Records Could Improve Care for Type 2 Diabetics

KEY POINTS

* Switching from paper records to electronic records does not adversely affect the care of patients with type 2 diabetes older than 40, according to a new study in Health Services Research.

* Patients older than 40 with type 2 diabetes at a clinic that uses electronic records are more likely to meet blood pressure target levels, refrain from smoking and take aspirin daily than patients at clinics that continue to use paper records.

* Switching to electronic records might not help patients older than 40 with type 2 diabetes to control their cholesterol levels or improve their HbA1c levels.

Newswise — Use of electronic health records shows promise for improving care and outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes, but still has considerable room for improvement, according to a new study in the journal Health Services Research.

With the U.S Department of Health and Human Services currently offering incentives for medical practices to move their records to electronic systems—and Medicare payment penalties to those who don’t convert by 2015—doctors and hospitals are increasingly incorporating these tools into their practices. However, the notion that electronic health records can improve care measurably has been under significant debate, said study co-leader Jeph Herrin, Ph.D., of Yale University.

“What’s unknown is whether moving to an electronic health records system would actually improve health outcomes,” he said. “So far, different studies have shown different results.”

Seeking more evidence, Herrin, co-author David Ballard, M.D., Ph.D., and their colleagues took advantage of two concurrent initiatives at the HealthTexas Provider Network, a northern Texas primary care medical group subsidiary of Baylor Health Care System. The first is a long-term effort made by the group to collect health data on their diabetes patients. The second is the roll out, started in 2006, of an electronic health record system to the Network’s nearly 100 clinics.

Herrin and his colleagues followed 14,051 diabetes patients from 34 group clinics over a four-year period. They looked at optimal diabetes care as a whole as well as individually examining each of five measures of diabetes management: HbA1c (a measurement that indicates average blood sugar control over time), LDL cholesterol, diastolic blood pressure, systolic blood pressure, aspirin prescription and non-smoking status.

They report that over the rollout period, the 29 practices that had the electronic health record system saw 6,376 diabetic patients. Comparing those exposed to the system to those that were not, the researchers found a significant improvement in all of the variables except for HbA1c and LDL cholesterol in the electronic health records group.

Herrin explained that certain features of the electronic health record system might be responsible for the better health measures among patients whose doctors used it. For example, even if patients visited their physician for something unrelated to diabetes—such as a flu shot—the system reminded their doctor to ask questions related to diabetes care. The researchers also noted that part of the increase might be due to better documentation in electronic health records than in paper records.

“This study offers evidence and reassurance that switching to electronic medical records isn’t going to hurt patients and may in fact help them,” Herrin said.

However, despite the significant increase in the number of patients who met some optimal care and outcome standards, Spyros Mezitis, M.D., an endocrinologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, noted that doctors and electronic health records still have a long way to go.

“This study showed mixed results,” he said. “There’s much room for improvement here.”

Mezitis points out measures for HbA1c and LDL cholesterol, two very important elements in diabetes care, did not improve in this study in the electronic health records group. With the extra initial expense, time and effort it takes to set up electronic health records, he added, more research is needed to develop systems that improve all measures of diabetes care.

TERMS OF USE: This story is protected by copyright. When reproducing any material, including interview excerpts, attribution to the Health Behavior News Service, part of the Center for Advancing Health, is required. While the information provided in this news story is from the latest peer-reviewed research, it is not intended to provide medical advice or treatment recommendations. For medical questions or concerns, please consult a health care provider.

# # #

Health Services Research is the official journal of the Academy Health and is published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. on behalf of the Health Research and Educational Trust. For information, contact Jennifer Shaw, HSR Business Manager at (312) 422-2646 or jshaw@aha.org. HSR is available online at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1475-6773/

Herrin, J. et al. (2012). The effectiveness of implementing an electronic health record on diabetes care and outcomes. Health Services Research, DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-6773.2011.01370.x

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Report: Electronic health records still need work

WASHINGTON (AP) — America may be a technology-driven nation, but the health care system's conversion from paper to computerized records needs lots of work to get the bugs out, according to experts who spent months studying the issue.

Hospitals and doctors' offices increasingly are going digital, the Bipartisan Policy Center says in a report released Friday. But there's been little progress getting the computer systems to talk to one another, exchanging data the way financial companies do.

"The level of health information exchange in the U.S. is extremely low," the report says.

At the consumer level, few people maintain a personal health record on their laptop or electronic tablet, partly due to concerns about privacy, security and accuracy that the government hasn't resolved.

"How will sensitive health data be kept confidential and secure in digital data-sharing environments?" the report asks. "Many consumers ... are waiting for a reassuring answer to this question."

The report offers a window on progress toward a goal set by President Barack Obama, and President George W. Bush before him, that everyone in the United States should have an electronic medical record by 2014.

While making no predictions, the report offers a collection of details indicating that the goal is a long shot at best.

"Will 100 percent of our nation have electronic health records by 2014?" asked Janet Marchibroda, who directs the center's health technology initiative. "I would say getting to that last mile is difficult." She expects the majority of hospitals and doctors to meet the goal, but it's another matter when it comes to consumers.

In politically polarized Washington, the center tries to tackle national problems from a pragmatic perspective. The report, more than six months in the making, was produced by a panel representing hospitals, doctors, insurers, consumers and technology companies. The review was led by two former senators with ties to the health care industry, Democrat Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Republican Bill Frist of Tennessee.

Electronic medical records are seen as a crucial component in creating a system that's more efficient and less prone to error. The government has committed up to $30 billion to encourage this shift, mostly through incentive payments to hospitals and doctors that were authorized in 2009 under Obama's economic stimulus law. Payments started flowing last year.

The report found that 5 percent of eligible doctors received payments last year, while about 33 percent had registered with the government that they intend to qualify.

Overall, about one-third of doctors' offices had some form of electronic records last year, compared with one-fourth in 2010.

Among hospitals, 32 percent received the incentive payments last year, the report said, while 61 percent notified the government they intend to qualify.

Those are signs of momentum, but the report found little progress in devising ways for the different computer systems to communicate with each other.

Part of the problem is that there isn't much financial incentive for competing health care providers to share information.

If an emergency room orders a test on a patient that a family doctor had run a week ago, the hospital gets paid for it. If the emergency room doctor relies on the test results from the family doctor, that's less revenue for the hospital.

"Health information exchange will not occur at optimal levels ... without a viable, sustainable business model," the report said.

Only from 7 percent to 11 percent of individuals have a personal electronic medical record. Some early adopters still run into problems with basic tasks such as downloading test results, renewing prescriptions online or scheduling appointments.

The report also says the government must address gaps in privacy protections. For example, a federal health privacy law that applies to hospitals, doctors, insurers and data transmission companies doesn't apply to companies that market electronic medical records directly to the public.

"This uneven coverage of federal health privacy law can be confusing for consumers and contributes to reluctance," the report said.

____

Online:

Bipartisan Policy Center report: http://tinyurl.com/86vgum3

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Is There A Component Of Electronic Cigarettes That Annoy Allergies?

Article Directory :: Health & Fitness Articles

Nowadays, many people all over the world are increasing their intake of electronic cigarettes on a day to day basis, even though there is no substantial information about the risks posed to health. E-cigarettes can be bought online and in various shopping malls across the world. The increasing intake makes it important to consider the safety concerns so the above answer can be duly answered.

What are the constituents? It consists of nicotine and propylene glycol that are housed in a cartridge, an atomizer, a power cord and a battery. When the smoker inhales air through it, the battery is activated by an air flow sensor. Once that happens, the tip of the cigarette becomes red so that smoking is stimulated. The nicotine and propylene glycol are turned into vapor once the atomizer is heated. As the smoker continues to inhale the substance, dose of nicotine becomes delivered into the smoker's lungs by the aerosol vapor that is inhaled from the e liquids.

Many traditional tobacco products burn when lighted. On the other hand, e-cigarettes vaporize the chemical compounds it contains. In other words, nicotine and the propylene glycol found in the cartridge are vaporized in the form aerosol once heated. But, this product is not likely to produce any of the toxic chemicals that are found by burning and smoking tobacco products.

There is still no information available about the health risks of the vaporized chemical compounds that are found in the aerosol of this product. Owing to that reason, a number of people still assume that this form of cigarette is a safe alternative if they do not want to smoke "real cigarettes" that are known to have the ability to predispose an individual to having cancer and sensitivity issues. But, is this assumption reliable? Of course, not!

At the moment, there is yet no solid research to confirm or prove otherwise about the safety of e-cigarettes. As a result, it is not absolutely correct for anyone to conclude that the product is safe for use, except sound scientific evidence exists to back up such claims. In the same vein, nothing is yet in the public knowledge about the toxicity of the vapors generated in the product.

As for the issue of allergies, it remains your duty to watch out for any possible signs of allergy when you take the product. Bear in mind that any allergies suffered by an individual may not necessarily be suffered by you as body chemistries and other health factors differ from one person to another.

Therefore, you need to use the result of your exposure to the product to judge whether or not you develop any allergies from the use of the product. Nobody can say with authority whether or not electronic cigarettes can cause allergies until there is scientific evidence to back it up or when it is proven with certainty that it is the cause of allergy in an individual. As it is now, the product may or may not cause allergies or other notorious side effects except the fact is adequately established.

In addition to what has been said earlier, let it be noted that there is need for more information about the health effects of the cigarette vapor. Substantial research and analysis are needed to make definite remarks about the safety of electronic cigarettes. The hope is that the frantic efforts made by scientists to research the safety of this product will for sure see the light of the day sooner than expected. Until then, the product is yet to have any links with allergies.

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