While the recent Supreme Court hearings were the biggest thing going on in U.S. healthcare, they weren’t the only thing. For years now, U.S. healthcare has been experiencing something of a revolution: Better technology and computer systems have radically improved the quality of healthcare. We now have electronic medical records, online referral and prescription systems, and seamless transfers of digital images between providers. The days of filling out the same patient form for each and every doctor visited is quickly becoming so 20th century.
The best part? All of this state-of-the art technology was going to drastically lower costs – on the order of $80 billion a year, according one estimate. Yet a study published in the March issue of the journal Health Affairs has sent shockwaves through the industry by finding the exact opposite: the presence of electronic imaging results – think X-rays, CT scans, etc. – actually led doctors to order more tests, not fewer. Because each test costs hundreds or even thousands of dollars, the presence – not the absence – of better technology led to higher costs.
The collective gasp you hear is the U.S. healthcare industry asking: Have we been wrong all along?
Well, no. The study is at odds with years of established opinion and research. As the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) found last year, 92 percent of studies between 2007 and 2010 reached positive conclusions on the effects of better healthcare technology, including cost savings. The $80 billion a year in savings mentioned earlier came from a groundbreaking 2005 study from the RAND Corporation.
The Health Affairs study also seems to contradict an even more recent study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, which found that electronic health records actually led to fewer tests. Although it didn’t address costs directly, the study aligned with the views of most in the industry: The ability to quickly and easily access health records reduces the need for further testing.
Studies like these have helped forge a consensus in the healthcare community that better technology leads to better treatment and lower costs. Naturally, this has led the government to enact policy to build better systems. Both in the private and public sectors, the federal government is spending billions of dollars to help providers build electronic healthcare systems that can share information seamlessly, reduce redundancy, and improve treatment for everyone.
Better technology will also lead to better security of patient information. You’ve probably seen the headlines in your local paper: Thousands of patient files found in garbage dump. And because these files contain personal and sensitive information, it is a serious problem for patients. But by securely storing these files electronically, behind state-of-the-art digital barricades, there won’t be any paper files to throw away in the dumpster.
Then there’s the patient experience. Why is it that you can seamlessly share, send and collect information between your smartphone, tablet computer, and laptop, and yet you have to fill out the same paper forms every time you visit a new doctor.
The problem is that upgrading a provider’s system to reach the bare minimum of interoperability is an intensive undertaking that requires significant investment. It’s also not easy to convince hospitals and physicians to invest in an unfamiliar, expensive system, especially if these providers think technology will only add to their operating costs. Fortunately, the federal government and many private providers are leading by example.
Just a few years ago, it took the Social Security Administration on average three months just to access the records needed to review benefits for patients. Now, because of better health IT, it takes seconds. In the private sector, Connecticut’s Hartford Hospital increased its early discharge rate, a metric hospitals use to manage bed utilization, nearly three-fold (from 9.5 to 25.6 percent) in seven months through the use of business intelligence dashboards. That’s the power of better healthcare technology.
These improvements don’t mean the industry as a whole should discount the Health Affairs study, because it exposes something often overlooked in our high-tech world: The human element. By providing critical data as it’s needed, when it’s needed, these technologies give physicians power beyond anything they’ve ever experienced. It’s not surprising that many would order more tests simply because it’s so much easier to do so.
In other words, no matter how amazing it is, the technology cannot replace the doctor. So as we continue to build a better healthcare system for the 21st century (and, yes, lower costs), our attitudes toward treatment must evolve as well.
Jim Traficant is president of Harris Healthcare Solutions.
