I went to the doctor late last week and the most exciting thing about it was this annoying sliver ..

[WCGreen]

in my big toe...

Seriously, a splinter was the only pending health issue I had in my quarterly review with my doctor. Oh, we talked about the amount of time his office was spending on upgrading their record keeping from paper to electronic. It is one of those requirements in the Health Care overhaul that was passed last year that will, I can attest to this, speed things up as far as going from doctor to doctor is concerned.

It kind of really sets everything in perspective. This time last year I was still reeling from my 18 day stay in semi-isolation over at Fairview Hospital. I was still too weak to really do anything other than hobble around. It was then that Dr. Haddadd explained to me that it could very well take over a year to get back to where my health was before I caught that nasty ass bug.

http://mylungtransplantyears.wordpress.com/about/


The newest post to my Lung transplant blog...

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. I hope all continues to go well for you

and damn it, I got a bad case of gastro enteritis, and my gut has not come fully back to normal after almost two months now.

And that was MY own body.

As to the electronic record keeping... in theory it should be a good idea. But there will be a few problems with it.

[truedelphi]

One of the biggest problems with the elcetronic record keeping is the duplicity.

I am talking about the duplicity that has to do with the cost.
For instance, In Marin County Calif, SutterHospital announced that they were going to spend 300 K of the community hospital's yearly budget on hiring the programmers and doing the creation of the overall software program that will allow for electronic capture of records.

At that meeting, my friend A.B. was visibly shaken by the announcement.

"This is so wrong," he whispered to me.

At break I asked "Why is it so wrong? Programmers are expensive, and if the hospital needs a team of three to five programmers and they work several months, their time alone should account for the 300,000 dollars."

"But really think about it," A.B. said. "Isn't our Sutter Hospital here in Marin part of the Sutter chain of hospitals? Why is it that they don't simply allocate the fully created software package already in use at two other Sutter Hospitals? Why are they pretending they need to reinvent the wheel that their chain of hospitals has already invented and paid for?"

But of course most citizenry isn't as fully informed as A.B.

And so it goes - at so many hospitals this type of situation will be in place. And of course, the full implication is that the Sutter chain of hospitals is not even keeping programmers fully employed - they can be keeping a dummy set of books that allow the community to think that the software was created at the local institution, when it really is simply passed over from one hospital to another.

[MedicalAdmin]

6. And then they cook the books and take the grant money.

Yup - it's theft.

And let's not get into the issues of EMR security or the fact that insurance companies WILL get access to all of the info and WILL use it to screw people. IT's a given based on their past behavior.

[WCGreen]

8. The system they have is connected in with the Cleveland Clinic...

They are just entering in all of their paper records now so that anywhere within the system, they can share my information when I travel about the conglomerate.

[truedelphi]

10. It is good to hear that not all hospitals

Are so duplicitous as the Sutter chain happens to be.

[WCGreen]

12. They can't afford to let costs spiral out of control...

The Cleveland Clinic has it's doctors on salary and so they are very interested in cost containment.

It's great because they are eventually going to be able to talk electronically with all the affiliated doctors in the area.

[truedelphi]

13. I understand the greatness of the electronic med records.

I am simply appalled at how the richest of hospital chains here in California constantly socks it to the consumers. On edit - in a totally fraudulent manner!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. And a splendid new post it is!

I can understand the let down feeling. Suddenly, the reason for your fight has been greatly diminished, and so what is left? What point is there now?

Ah, but you have turned all of that around, and are now seeing the positive. Sometimes it's hard to do that, when you've been consumed by all the negative stuff for so long.

Congratulations!

May your health only continue to get better!

[ananda]

3. I work for a doctor with electronic records and files.

It's a fantastic system, just amazing. Everything she does is automated
and electronic. I've never seen anything like it. I love it.

[MedicalAdmin]

9. A very good friend of mine is the head of network security for a hospital chain

And I asked him about how to protect medical records on any computer system when we were looking at EMR for our clinic. Here's what he told me - "If you want to keep it secure then write it on a piece of paper and stuff it in a drawer you can lock."

It was a sobering conversation that followed on exactly how EMR systems can be subverted, hacked and opened up. In a larger system it would make sense to use EMR if there is no continuity of care between patient and care providers, but in a smaller private practice like ours it just doesn't make any sense.

[pacalo]

4. Take special precautions this year, WC, because there's a nasty bug going around right now.

It affects the upper & lower respiratory tracts -- lots of congestion & coughing -- with aches & pains. I had it for 2 weeks & am just now feeling back up to par. Now my husband has it, & I tried to avoid being around him as much as possible.

Tell those who visit you to stay away if they have a cold, wash your hands frequently, & take plenty of vitamin C. I sure don't want you getting this.

[WCGreen]

7. I take all sorts of Immune Boosters and try and stay out fo crowds...

[truedelphi]

5. Glad to hear you are doing so well.

I bet it feels good to be you right about now.

Will be checking your blog out later.

[postulater]

11. You caught an ass bug?

I had one too but I let it go. My wife didn't like it around the house.

Now we just have pussies.