Is it me, or is healthcare in the US all about Electronic Health Records (EHRs) these days? The government can do all it wants to penalize providers for not using EHR technology, but should it not be the other way around? I mean, should the doctors not be asking the government to upgrade the legacy systems? Because the way I see it, EHR usage would lead to better health information exchange which in turn would lead to better quality care and that is what doctors do.

Today, the situation in our country is quite different. Some physicians earn enough to not be concerned about any penalties. But does that mean that they are not concerned about improving patient lives? I don’t think so. At least that’s what I hope.  The government’s Meaningful Use program has entered its second stage which focuses on health information exchange (HIE) along with improved e-prescribing and other objectives. But the question is whether these measures are enough to improve patient health on the whole? Let’s discuss.

Interoperability is the most important factor in ensuring a successful Meaningful Use Stage 2. The whole Stage has been designed around just one objective – improving patient lives. But do we really have sufficient interoperability to achieve this? I don’t think so. Today, there are nearly 2,000 EHR vendors offering solutions to healthcare organizations around the country. But can these systems speak to each other? No, they cannot. The way I see it, this is the biggest problem with healthcare today. Let’s look at an example.

A person travels from New York to Washington DC and falls sick there. He is suffering from a chronic condition as well epilepsy and is in a really bad shape when admitted to the closest hospital. Assuming that the doctors in DC are unable to access the patient’s medical history in a timely manner, due to a lack of interoperability, what should the doctor in DC do? The only thing he can do is to rely on his intuition and pray that it does not cost him. At that point, is the doctor still concerned about payments or penalties, or saving the patient’s life?

That is the problem – the inability of the physician to access patient records when needed in emergency situations. I presume that this is what we are trying to achieve here through continuous changes to the healthcare laws, and by penalizing physicians for not abiding by them. The objective is to enable every qualified physician to access any registered patient’s record, in urgent care scenarios, as soon as possible.

Let’s look at other countries and compare that to where we are. Take Singapore for example. With a “one patient, one record” objective, it has deployed one country-wide EHR system, so primary care centers, hospitals and other healthcare professionals can access a single up to date patient record. That’s not all. Every country I have been to is focusing on saving patient lives through IT. However, here in America we are yet to endorse the single electronic patient record system.

However, future looks promising. 2014 is going to be an extremely important year for our healthcare system with the switch to ICD-10 in October, as well as the Meaningful Use Stage 2 deadline approaching fast. The time is not far when every physician in the country will have access to every single patient medical record. So, any American will be able to contact any qualified physician whenever and wherever required, tell them their unique patient ID and voila!

As one of my doctor friends puts it, “Healthcare will only move forward, when every patient has a single patient record updated real-time and accessible across the world.”