foodconsumer.org: Electronic Medical Systems Not Flawless

Electronic Medical Systems Not Flawless
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admin on 09/29/2009 21:59:00
 
One of President Obama's health care reform initiatives is to convert all
medical record keeping from paper based systems to electronic ones in an effort
to increase efficiency.
The journal Archives of Internal Medicine is reporting on a study conducted at
the Michael DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston regarding the
facility's email alert system that is intended to bring abnormal test results to
physicians for follow up. According to the analysis, 8% of abnormal testing
alerts weren't followed up on in a timely fashion.
Those that were not followed up on were alerts for imaging results showing
cancerous growths or aneurysms.
The study focused on 1,196 abnormal test results between November 2007 and June
of 2008; no timely follow up occurred after 92 alerts.  Additionally,
researchers found that results were less likely to be followed up on if more
than one clinician received the alert, but more likely to be followed up on if a
radiologist commented on the abnormalities verbally.
Despite these findings, electronic systems are much more efficient in this
regard than faxed results.  A Harvard study in 2004 showed that 64% of women
with abnormal mammograms received timely follow-up.
by Rachel Stockton rachels at foodconsumer dot org