"It can save money and save lives."
This is how the Detroit Free Press quotes President Bush during his visit to the Cleveland Clinic yesterday as he was commenting on the need for a pervasive electronic health record (EHR) including e-prescribing.
"Most industries in America have used information technology to make their businesses more cost-effective, more efficient and more productive -- and the truth of the matter is, health care hasn't," Bush said.
To support this initiative, Bush will propose spending $125 million to test such systems when he sends his budget to Congress next month.
A report posted on HealthAffairs.org, "The Value Of Health Care Information Exchange And Interoperability," estimates that $78 billion a year could be saved with such an EHR based on open standards. The downside is that the estimated cost to establish this system over the next ten years is $276 billion. Interestingly, this report also mentions that the savings would be only $24 billion per year if a system is adopted that doesn't utilize open standards.
On January 18, a group of 13 health IT organizations, under the auspices of the Markle Foundation, submitted a report to Dr. David Brailer, the national health information technology coordinator. This report endorses that the government should provide some initial financing and support with the aim to implementing this EHR on an incremental basis in order to garner the most support.
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