There’s a good article in iHealthBeat today that calls for focus on sharing of information between providers. The report from Government Health IT calls for a move away for IT development towards a focus on sharing information. The article states,
Merely creating EHRs doesn’t give doctors and other health care providers any incentive to use those records or add updated information to them, the report states. “We need to incent the use of the information,” said Kristine Anderson of Booz Allen Hamilton, one of the report’s authors. “It just won’t happen naturally. We believe public payers can lead this charge” by offering providers incentives to share information, Anderson added.
As a physician, I see a couple of issues here. First, an incentive. That’s code for we’re going to pay you less unless you conform to our new system. I’ve been down that road a number of times before.
Physicians aren’t used to sharing. And there’s a number of historical reasons why. First, other doctors may represent competition to my ability to earn a livelihood. Second, there’s an issue of competence. Do I want to share my treatment with another doctor who I feel is less capable of providing the same care to ‘my patient’?
My patient. What does that mean? It means that we take ownership of care. A good physician vests themselves in the care of their patient sharing in the successes and failures of care. From a philosophical basis, it’s going to be hard for a doctor to not take ownership of the people for whom they treat.
It may not sound like it, but I’m behind these changes. I currently use an EMR but I’m also a vocal advocate for my patients. There I go again…my patients. I might have to just get over it.
Jeff
Jeffrey A. Oster, DPM
Medical Director
Myfootshop.com
