A look at today's healthcare industry reveals a fragmented, diverse group of providers who are all delivering care in their own unique way. They generally use very different record keeping systems, which can make it difficult to share information among practices. Furthermore, few even bother to make efforts to share information with others.
However, this can cause major problems. Limited collaboration results in a lack of coordination of care for patients who are seeing multiple providers. This can lead to duplicated efforts, higher costs and poorer quality.
Yet many industry analysts say that this all about to change. The government's efforts to get all healthcare providers to use electronic health records and participate in some sort of health information exchange programs could revolutionize the way in which doctors deliver care. Many believe that technology will bring more collaboration to healthcare, which could result in better quality and lower costs for everyone.
These hypothetical changes are closer than many may be aware of. David E. Garets, an executive director of research and advisory services at The Advisory Board Company, a health IT consulting group, said that he believes the transformational changes that will be caused by health IT adoption will occur within the decade.
"I think it now has gotten to the point where IT is not optional in a health care delivery organization," he said. "It is required to run the business effectively and efficiently, take care of patients, ensure quality, and document it all. It will be exciting to see where the next 10 years take us as HIT makes tremendous strides in supporting the highest goals of our health care delivery system."
He added that the healthcare reform laws could also do a lot to encourage technology adoption. The new laws encourage practices to deliver care more efficiently and with a greater focus on the patient. Electronic health records and other forms of technology make it possible for hospitals and doctors to deliver this type of care.
These changes could help healthcare providers consolidate their information gathering practices and make it easier for physicians to access critical data when and where they need it. Michael Hansen, CEO of Elsevier Health Sciences, an consulting company, said that healthcare providers often have information in many places, which interferes with their ability to deliver care.
However, using an electronic health records system could simplify the process and improve their ability to track patients' progress.
"Advancing healthcare quality begins with providing clinicians with the best, most current evidence-based information wherever and whenever it is needed," he said.
He agreed that the types of institutions encouraged by the healthcare reform laws, which include accountable care organizations and patient centered medical homes, will play large roles in the future of the delivery of care and that these models demand greater use of technology.
Governmental efforts are largely the source of these rapid changes. Aside from the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act, nearly $20 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act went to provide physicians with financial incentives for adopting electronic health records. This has prompted many providers to begin rapidly transitioning to a paperless system.
To be sure, the industry is changing at a rapid rate. Technology now makes possible many things that doctors would never have dreamed of. The ability to access a patient's entire case history can allow doctors to avoid unnecessary testing and skip right to delivering the most effective treatments possible.