Emerging Issues Paper

Emerging Issues Paper

The pen and pencil days of managing health care are extinct for some organizations and quickly coming to an end for others. Technologies that manage the entire patient care experience have now matured and are embraced by many because of the workflow efficiencies, cost reduction, and quality improvements that they promise. Wireless/Mobility, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Exchanges (HIEs), Storage Area Networks (SANs) and patient portals are a few of the technologies saturating the healthcare market today.

The most significant advocate of Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) is the federal government. They believe that the implementation of such technologies can help in reducing the cost of patient care while driving a reduction in medical errors and duplicate treatments. During a talk in Chicago last year I heard Alan Greenspan claimed that Centers for Medicare andMedicaid Services (CMS) has been a financial burden on the American people since his early days as the Chairman of the United States Financial Reserve Board in the late 80s (Greenspan, 2009). In efforts to reduce this financial burned an arsenal of healthcare reform legislation has been passed that promotes the and eventually mandates the use of certain technologies.

The United States is a leader in many industries. However, from a healthcare technology perspective, this nation has been slow to adopt. The Netherlands, New Zealand, and the U.K. have the highest percentages of EMR adoption at around 90% (Conn, 2009). The United States adoption rate is just over 36%. Global competition has a significant impact on U.S. policy. Nations that have embraced technology, lead the world in delivering quality patient are while driving down costs. Global critics have labeled our healthcare system as one of waste and inaccuracies. In efforts to modernize and improve our dated healthcare system, through Healthcare Reform, the U.S. Government hopes to...