Monday, July 15, 2013

Can Electronic Medical Record Systems Transform Health Care? Potential Health Benefits, Savings, And Costs? Health Affairs Article

Bismillah
I recently read through a study performed by RAND researchers that examined the benefit/cost analysis of EMR adoption/interoperability, "Can Electronic Medical Record Systems Transform Health Care? Potential Health Benefits, Savings, and Costs?"

The study predicts efficiency and safety savings of $142-371 billion dollars (didn't see a time frame) with the adoption of interoperable EMR systems.

The study speaks to efficiency savings, safety and health benefits. I listed some high level detail below. For more details to the headers below and study design, feel free to review the full article:

http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/24/5/1103.full.pdf+html
 
1.      Efficiency savings in outpatient setting included eliminating transcription and chart pull services, easier access to lab/radiology tests, better decision support for drug prescription, etc.

2.      Efficiency savings in the inpatient setting included decreased nursing times/length-of stay, simpler access to medical records, easier access to lab/radiology tests, etc.

3.      Safety benefits from HIT including reducing adverse drug events in inpatient and ambulatory settings

4.      Using HIT for short-term term preventive care

5.      Using HIT for near-term chronic disease management

6.      Using HIT for long-term chronic disease prevention and management








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