In Cleveland, Ohio Federal officials have pointed out that EMR has achieved a great deal of success as a platform for accessing and sharing patient medical records with patients and the medical community in general. Because of this, they have also said that it is imperative that the medical community work faster to completely adopt this form of storing and disseminating patient medical records in order to facilitate using EMR as the sole platform for medical records. The stated goal is to use EMR for “delivering the right care to the right patient at the right time,” according to Kathleen Sebelius, who is the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.
In order to help with this project, Sebelius has eased the rules that are applied to EMR adoption for hospitals and doctors who are planning to use this technology replace their current format for storing and dispersing patient medical records. It was also announced that a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey indicated that 52% of doctors who work through private offices are now planning to adopt EMR as their medical records platform. This is in response to the incentives that are being offered in order to mitigate the expenses involved with EMR adoption.
It’s also been noted by the medical community that Cleveland stands out as being the area that has attracted national attention, over the past few years, by spearheading the nation’s move to adopt EMR. The region was visited by the U.S. president, Barack Obama, in 2009, as part of his endeavors to pass health care reform initiatives that total $27 billion for funds to be dispersed to hospitals and doctors who are making the move to EMR. These efforts, of course, also involve using a platform that can assure patients of complete confidentiality when it comes to their medical records.
Historically, the region of Northeast Ohio has spent millions of dollars in EMR adoption, which makes it the most progressive area of the country when it comes to making the switch over to EMR. All of this boils down to one thing when it comes to patient care. An example of this would be seen in a situation where a patient becomes unconscious outside their home city and is rushed to the hospital.The doctors there would be able to electronically pull up that patient’s health record in order to begin immediate and accurate treatment without having to wait for a medical record to arrive. This can, in some cases, save a patient’s life.