Are financial incentives they key to get the E-Health ball rolling?

When I was checking out E-Health systems from around the world, one of the things I liked about what the United States has done, was the fact that they are providing financial incentives so that the healthcare sector will be more inclined to implement the system.

I have just found an article on Pulse+IT which suggests that this could be what is missing from our own system, particularly in relation to the aged care sector.

Financial support the missing link for aged care PCEHR uptake:

http://www.pulseitmagazine.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1416:financial-support-the-missing-link-for-aged-care-pcehr-uptake&catid=67:aged-care&Itemid=332

According to the article, the Aged Care Industry Information Technology Council (ACIITC) is urging the government to consider financial incentives so that they can be PCEHR-ready, claiming that lack of important software has forced a slow uptake in the aged care sector.

Aged care is one of the areas that I believe would gain the most from the E-Health system- so this is something that I believe should be considered. Patients in this sector are often on countless medications, see several healthcare practitioners and are in and out of nursing homes and hospitals. I know I would struggle to keep up with all this information if this were me. PCEHR would make things a lot easier but if the aged care industry does not have the key software- everyone cannot get involved and the system won’t work as effectively as it could. Funding for this could help with the uptake of the system.

ACIITC chair Suri Ramanathan claims that because pharmacists receive a PBS dispense fee for dispensing medications- they should be receiving incentives too. He says that they are one of the largest industries in the country and “facilities operate on a paper-thin margin, so for them to adopt the change, they need a little bit of a hand.”

Mr Ramanathan said that financial help is the “missing link” for E-Health to really get moving in the aged care industry. However, why stop at aged care? Surely many areas in the healthcare industry could use some financial help to get E-Health up and going.

From a pharmacist’s perspective, the more people healthcare industries that get involved in E-Health, the better. Like I have said previously, PCEHR is meant to provide a whole picture of a patient’s health and the key to this happening is getting all areas of the healthcare industry involved. If funding will inspire more to get on-board, then I believe it is something to really think about.

Do you think funding would encourage more healthcare professionals to implement E-Health?

E-Health in Kuwait

When i thought about eHealth in Kuwait, i couldn’t remember that i heard about it or someone had mentioned it before, and that the Government of Kuwait would think about having an eHealth system. But, when i searched about it and for a moment thought maybe there is an eHealth system in Kuwait and nobody knows about it, i realised that Kuwait is actually trying to put an eHealth system and has made several exhibitions and conferences with the other Arabian Gulf countries.

     Kuwait like many Gulf States faces a looming crisis in health-care around emerging chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease and vascular diseases. Kuwait has recognized this as an opportunity to upgrade the healthcare system from a primarily disease incident based system to a proactive integrated healthcare system. The backbone of integrated care is information sharing and aggregation for all the involved stakeholders. This will involve clinical, regulatory, patient engagement and IT changes. This talk will explore each of these areas, and where opportunities exist for improving the health of Kuwait’s citizens through use of electronic healthcare systems.

Kuwait has made a great step on improving the health system by introducing the eHealth idea. For sure it is going to take a long time to get started on the system and introducing it to Kuwaiti’s. I hope that Kuwait activates that system as soon as possible for the benefit of citizens and the Ministry Of Health to have records electronically instead of files and papers.

The world of E-Health

The world of E-Health

Because we’ve been exploring E-Health Australia, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the systems in place around the world. Many countries have either implemented or are in the process of implementing their own versions of E-Health. I found a document called “The e health revolution—easier said than done” which gives a brief run down on what some other countries have been up to in the world of E-Health.  http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1112/12rp03#_Toc309206390

Czech Republic

The electronic health record in the Czech Republic, known as IZIP, commenced in 2005 and is widely used by the healthcare community and patients. As of 2009, more than a third of healthcare organizations and 10% of the population had signed up. Their records include patient contact with medical practitioners, consultation history, dental history, test results, vaccination history and hospital reports. In their system, practitioners and patients have access to a patient’s record, but it is only able to be altered by a practitioner. The patient can authorize for a practitioner to have access to their record and can choose which information a medical professional can see. In 2008, the Czech Republic also incorporated Health Insurance so that patients are able to log on a view what payments they have received from their insurance provider. While other European countries are not as far along as the Czech Republic, most have made a start or are looking at doing so.

Denmark

Denmark has a high level of public satisfaction with their healthcare system and has had great success with their E-Health system. Denmark’s national E-Health system was launched in 2005 and provides patients and healthcare professionals with a single access point to healthcare services. Patients can log on to their personal profile to book doctors’ appointments, renew prescriptions, review their medical history or diagnostic tests and even communicate with medical practitioners via email (practitioners receive incentives in the form of a small fee for emails with patients). In Denmark 98% of primary care practices have access to electronic medical records where they are able to enter patient history, manage a patient’s medications, make problem lists, generate eScripts and send them straight to a pharmacy, view hospital records and issue automatic preventative reminders. It is believed that Denmark’s E-Health success is likely due to their small population and abundance of IT-savvy citizens. The Danish government have placed a high importance on E-Health and even funded primary care practitioners to access technical support to encourage further adoption of the E-Health system.

Read more about E-Health in Denmark at http://www.sum.dk/~/media/Filer%20-%20Publikationer_i_pdf/2012/Sunheds-IT/Sunheds_IT_juni_web.ashx

 The United Kingdom

HealthSpace, just one facet of the UK’s E-Health system, is an online personal organizer which has been described as pointless and irrelevant. HealthSpace allows patients to enter health information (e.g. blood pressure readings) and to arrange appointments with medical practitioners. Uptake of HealthSpace has been disappointing with over 2.4 million people invited to join between 2007 and 2010, and only 173,000 people actually doing so. E-Health systems in the US as well as the UK have copped similar criticism and have been accused of trying to accomplish too much, too soon as opposed to the Danish E-Health system which steadily progressed over several years.

The United States

Advances to E-Health in the United States have lagged behind other countries, with no E-Health system in place until 2009. A survey in 2006 revealed widespread concerns regarding the setup costs for practitioners if they were to implement E-Health which was seen as a major barrier. In 2009 an economic stimulus was passed which meant that medical practitioners were eligible for $44,000 – $63,750 US for showing that they are using health information technology in a meaningful way. Hospitals were eligible for several million dollars. The incentives, which began in 2011, will be phased out over time and by 2015 practitioners will fined if they haven’t converted to electronic health records. Another major concern which may be stalling E-Health in America is privacy. America does not have extensive privacy laws in place like other countries do and there are worries that any information presented in electronic format is easily accessed, shared and downloaded. These fears are not shared by all and some practitioners are enthusiastic about E-Health and are trying to get patients onboard.

How do you think the Australian E-Health System compares?