IN FOCUS
Healthcare reform highlighted during Leadership
Whether you welcome it or not, the topic of healthcare reform has recently come to the forefront of Congressional – and now public – conversations.
The conversation continued during Leadership 2009 in Denver, with an educational session guided by Paul Keckley, PhD, executive director of Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. In his presentation, Keckley gave an overview of current healthcare trends, the current push for new legislation and the technology that will drive change.
Among the biggest reasons for the healthcare reform movement is the effect a more efficient system can have on the economy as a whole.
“You can’t solve the economy unless you fix healthcare,” Keckley said.
And the driving force behind reform lies in technology. Within its current definition, healthcare is not one system, Keckley said, but a federation of interests that’s fragmented and costly. The movement to revitalize healthcare information technology (IT) behind an electronic health record (EHR), could increase efficiency, unify disparate parts and, ultimately, drive down costs.
“You see this framework of the IT platform as a means to the end,” Keckley said. “It’s fundamental. It’s the engine that drives everything about it.”
With a structured healthcare IT system that tracks individual health records and hospital performance comes the potential for an exponential increase in evidence-based medicine.
While the government already has an EHR mandate with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds tied to it, Keckley noted that the larger challenge will be in passing legislation that offers all U.S. citizens healthcare.
More information is available here.
Read the July issue of AORN Advocacy Update for an in-depth feature on current healthcare reform issues and how data collection and health IT could influence change.
Read more news in AORN Connections.