Poor communication between EHRs is unacceptable. Let ’s fix it.

The third year of medical school is when a student experiences the frustrations of medicine firsthand. Once, my team admitted a transfer patient from another hospital to treat a condition that was ravaging the patient’s lungs. But before we could act, we needed to rule out a dormant infection; if our patient was unknowingly infected with tuberculosis (TB), giving our first-line therapies could lead to a disseminated infection — even death. The other hospital had already performed the necessary tests, including a TB culture from the patient’s lung fluid. Unfortunately, because the other hospital used a different electronic health record (EHR) system, it could not send us the patient’s updated digital health record. Instead, it sent us an 80-page printout with the TB result listed as “pending.” We considered repeating the test ourselves, but it was an invasive procedure, and, more alarmingly, our patient’s organs had started to fail. The inability to share information efficiently is a common conundrum between clinics and hospitals. This is despite the fact that implementation of EHR was supposed to streamline the management of patient data. Currently, the exchange of patient information is hampered by the fact that there are lots different EHR systems out there, and they don’t talk to each other very well. Continue reading ... Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how.
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Tech Health IT Source Type: blogs