Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
EMR and the NFL
Even the National Football League has entered into the electronic medical records (EMR) world. There has been much concern over the repeated head injuries and their lasting cognitive effects on players. The National Football League has been widely criticized for failure to do enough to address the issue. Records, it turns out, can be a part of the solution to this issue. To address this issue the NFL has adopted a EMR system for the 2013-2104 season.
The NFL selected eClinicalWorks system that would store x-rays, blood test results, physical exam notes, medications and video clips documenting game injury. This will be centrally located and players and physicians will be able to access them from anywhere in the country. Records will be available on smartphones or tablets by medical staff on the sidelines of games. This will allow physicians to send prescriptions electronically to the pharmacy or an order for an X-ray or MRI. It can hold a workout regimen for rehabilitation and will allow trainers to examine X-rays from previous injuries to compare with new ones.
Because of all the attention placed on repeated head injuries, an electronic monitoring system could help medical personnel on the sidelines to make judgment calls on whether a player should be pulled from the game.
In the near future: Kalorama Information will complete its sixth title on electronic medical records markets, EMR 2013. Keep watching this blog and www.kaloramainformation.com for updates.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Patients May Be Concerned By Doctor Payment Reductions
There's a lot of concern about healthcare costs, and we expect this will be a dominant topic as Medicare 2% cuts kick in as a result of the federal sequester. The cuts impact the doctor and not the patient directly. But how do patients feel, seeing as they are not receiving the money or footing the bulk of the bill?
There's at least one study that shows that patients think doctors are paid too little for operations. They think they should pay more, but more to the point: they worry about low Medicare rates threatening their access to needed care. Last summer, a study published in the Journal of Arthoplasty, researchers asked orthopedic patients to estimate what they thought surgeons should be paid for total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA), as well as what they thought Medicare actually reimbursed doctors for the procedures.
They were way off.
According to the study, patients thought that surgeons should receive $18,501 for total hip replacements and $16,822 for total knee replacements but estimated that were paid $11,151 and $8,902, respectively. Patient estimates were six times lower.
Patients who had higher education levels, had received one of the procedures, or belonged to an HMO or PPO tended to perceive the value of both THA and TKA as being higher, but the researchers were surprised by how significantly inaccurate the estimates were.
The study was so interesting it was picked up by the "Freakonomics" blog. According to study coauthor Jared Foran, "In short, patients--the most important part of all of healthcare policy decisions--have absolutely no clue how much doctors get paid. They think we get paid (or, at least, deserve to) about 10 times more than we actually do!"
There's at least one study that shows that patients think doctors are paid too little for operations. They think they should pay more, but more to the point: they worry about low Medicare rates threatening their access to needed care. Last summer, a study published in the Journal of Arthoplasty, researchers asked orthopedic patients to estimate what they thought surgeons should be paid for total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA), as well as what they thought Medicare actually reimbursed doctors for the procedures.
They were way off.
According to the study, patients thought that surgeons should receive $18,501 for total hip replacements and $16,822 for total knee replacements but estimated that were paid $11,151 and $8,902, respectively. Patient estimates were six times lower.
Patients who had higher education levels, had received one of the procedures, or belonged to an HMO or PPO tended to perceive the value of both THA and TKA as being higher, but the researchers were surprised by how significantly inaccurate the estimates were.
The study was so interesting it was picked up by the "Freakonomics" blog. According to study coauthor Jared Foran, "In short, patients--the most important part of all of healthcare policy decisions--have absolutely no clue how much doctors get paid. They think we get paid (or, at least, deserve to) about 10 times more than we actually do!"
Friday, March 22, 2013
A Lot More Work To Do in EMR for Physician Satisfaction
What product can get away with a 40% dissastisfaction rating from its users? Well, it looks like EMR (electornic medical records) the main users of EMR systems don't like the system they have and are pursuing workarounds as best they can. It's a signal we believe for the industry to change, to think about the real work of a physician and how the software fits in. How many screens, how many clicks, how many alerts can one provider tolerate? With a focus on securing installations rather than building raving fans, EMR vendors have left themselves open to continued compeition from startups.
Kalorama has reported on usability issues in EMR for several years, and results according to a survey by the American College of Physicians and AmericanEHR Partners, web-based resource for EHR system selection and implementation. Overall, user satisfaction dropped by 12 percentage points between 2010 and 2012 and the "very dissatisfied" group grew by 10 percentage points.
Our own complete EMR Market Research Study is located here: http://www.kaloramainformation.com/EMR-6842545/
Kalorama has reported on usability issues in EMR for several years, and results according to a survey by the American College of Physicians and AmericanEHR Partners, web-based resource for EHR system selection and implementation. Overall, user satisfaction dropped by 12 percentage points between 2010 and 2012 and the "very dissatisfied" group grew by 10 percentage points.
Our own complete EMR Market Research Study is located here: http://www.kaloramainformation.com/EMR-6842545/
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