Managed Healthcare Executive - November 2008 - (Page 28)

{ TECHNOLOGY } providers to access the patient’s medical record from the point of care as long as the servers on which the health information exchange is hosted remain intact and functioning. Stakeholders have also learned from recent disasters that providers are often displaced themselves and might not be in a position to continue the care of the patient. Those providers who are available and have access to care history are better able provide a continuance of care. EXTENDING ACCESS that remained behind or returned,” he says. “Ochsner’s decision to allow physicians other than those employed by Ochsner to access its health record platform is consistent with the desire to allow those physicians to provide care. This is not unlike the situation we see in hospitals across the United States today in which hospitals allow access to their health data systems to both physicians who are employed by the hospital and non-employed physicians who are members of their medical sta .” EXECUTIVE VIEW Encourage and support national EMR standards. Inform members of ways to protect health information. Extend access of EMRs to outside providers in case of emergency. According to Dr. Witherspoon, Ochsner is integrating information from its community hospitals or practice sites. Recognizing that access to patient information resident in multiple locations is cumbersome, Ochsner introduced MDLink—a Web-based function providing such access through a single portal and requiring only a browser and access to the Internet. Later this year, an improved version of the portal will allow physicians to see full medical records with a single login and improved system navigation. Historically, medical records departments were located on the ground oor or basement of the facility in order to allow easy access. “If the records are stored electronically, and the servers on which this data is stored are not ooded, then it is much easier to resume the provision of care seamlessly after the storm or other disaster,” Gravely says. Having access to current records certainly made it easier for Ochsner to reestablish clinic-based practices. “After Gustav, we re-opened clinics the following day without thinking twice about having to move records, because they were available electronically,” Dr. Witherspoon says. “The only barrier to getting back up was extensive loss of power throughout the region. If ever anyone now doubts the value of electronic health records or real-time health information exchange with other healthcare providers, Katrina and Gustav were serious wakeup calls.” SINGLE STANDARDS Following Hurricane Katrina, the Ochsner Health System acquired three former Tenet hospitals in New Orleans, as well as a hospital in Raceland, south of New Orleans, and another in Baton Rouge. “We extended our access to our electronic record platform to non-Ochsner community physicians practicing in these hospitals believing that what we know will help them provide better care to patients we share,” Dr. Witherspoon says. “Today, we have more non-Ochsner community physicians accessing our platforms than Ochsner doctors.” Having electronic records and an integrated system enabled Ochsner to respond to this season’s hurricanes in novel ways, Dr. Witherspoon explains. “Shortly after Katrina, we were able to relocate and reopen outpatient facilities to provide much-needed services such as medication renewals without having to deal with paper medical records,” he says. “More recently, with two of our hospitals in Hurricane Gustav’s path, we literally evacuated about 100 patients into our other hospitals in New Orleans. Electronic records helped us minimize the disruption associated with these challenges.” Given the mass exodus of physicians from Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina, Gravely is not surprised. “One consequence was a signi cant shortage of physicians and other healthcare providers to take care of the population 28 NOVEMBER 2008 The National Biodefense Science Board (NBSB) Disaster Medicine Working Group recently concluded that electronic medical records, being leveraged increasingly after patient displacement, would be improved by use of standardized data elds. Its national teams assist states in moving patients from a disaster site to safe areas of the nation, particularly patients who need critical care. “Healthcare has not developed a single, interoperable standardized EMR system,” says Stephen Cantrill, MD, NBSB Disaster Medicine Working Group chair, Denver Health Medical Center department of emergency management. “Individual healthcare facilities and doctor’s o ces have developed individual systems, which may service the facilities or the physicians well on a daily basis, but as the systems are today, they do not serve the nation as well as they could in an emergency.” The working group concluded that the nation’s need for better disaster response could be a catalyst for change. He says the best way for industry to come together in EMR system development would be for HHS to require a minimum set of standardized data elds for every system. 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Managed Healthcare Executive - November 2008 For Your Benefit Editorial Advisors Contents News Analysis State Report Politics &�Policy Letter of the Law Affordable Access Economic Ripple Effect Hospitals &�Providers Technology Managed Care Outlook Desktop Resource Ad/Edit Index

Managed Healthcare Executive - November 2008

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