The cost overbearing cost of health care insurance among patients in the United States prompted health care providers and public-health officials to promote novel ways on cutting the cost of medical expenditures. According to the report of Landro (2014), the US government in partnership with hospitals, and doctors are encouraging patients to be updated on their medical data in order to seek immediate medical treatment when facing emergency situations. Part of the campaign is to allow American patients to access their respective medical conditions online.
These records/data may help patients to manage their health appropriately. Clinicians, on the other hand, with the aid of mobile applications such as Android could easily monitor the condition of their patients from time to time. Such development of the technology is a response to the dwindling population of doctors in the US.
The success of developing electronic health records is manifested by how well health care providers utilize such data to make quick decisions that involves matter-of-life-and-death situations. In Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center in California, the outpatient doctor James Lin was able to demonstrate the efficiency of such technology as he quickly ordered the transfer of one patient to the intensive care unit before succumbing to a cardiac arrest. However, Leonard and Tozzi (2012) reported that the electronic health records system cost four billion dollars. Further, the technology also took five years to set up before it became operational.
In the case of other medical facilities, Landro reported that doctors must meet a set of criteria with regard to the “meaningful” use of such electronic databases that involves both patients and families in deciding the type of available treatment options.
References
Landro, L. (2014, Jun 09). Unleashing innovation: Health care (A special report) --- how patients really can help heal themselves: The key to better health is being more actively involved in your own care; new tools make that a lot more likely. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from: http://search.proquest.com/docview/1534074898?accountid=47253.
Leonard, D. & Tozzi, J. (2012, Jun 21). Why don't more hospitals use electronic health records? Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved from: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-06-21/why-dont-more-hospitals-use-electronic-health-records.
