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Mayor And Health Commissioner Unveil Hi-Tech Health Records Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden recently unveiled the city's next-generation electronic health records (EHRs), already in use at more than 200 primary-care providers across the city that care for more than 200,000 New Yorkers. Amidst a growing national debate about how to fix the health care system, the city is on track to meet its goal of equipping more than 1,000 local health care providers - many of them practicing in the city's poorest and sickest neighborhoods - with secure EHR systems by the end of the year, benefiting more than a million patients. This effort will create the nation's largest community-based EHR network and is a step toward a new kind of health care system that puts the focus on prevention rather than treatment. The Mayor and Commissioner Frieden were joined at the announcement by New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Richard F. Daines, City Council Member Joel Rivera, and Dr. Sumir Sahgal, a physician whose Bronx practice has adopted the new technology. "Electronic health records that put prevention first are a necessary but not sufficient step to fix our ailing health care system," Bloomberg said. "This system gives doctors the right information at the right time so they can make the right decisions and save lives," said Commissioner Frieden. The Health Department's Primary Care Information Project's new software promotes prevention by giving doctors tools that no other commercially available health record provides. Secure electronic health records can help transform health care, just as information technology has revolutionized other industries. Besides improving efficiency and preventing medical errors, a well-designed electronic health record can help physicians monitor - and manage - health risks to entire groups of patients. By visually tracking measures such as cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar, the record gives doctors and patients the information they need to chart progress and maximize health. The new health record also allows doctors to provide patient-centered care, and to monitor their own performance to see how well they are doing at providing good preventive care. This will also allow insurers and the government to restructure payment systems to favor high quality preventive care that will help reduce the need for higher-cost surgeries and treatments that occur after a patient becomes sick. It also improves the quality of care. Policy debates typically focus on how to increase access and control cost - both critical issues - but they often skirt the issue of how to make health care more effective. Nationally, nine out of ten people with uncontrolled diabetes or hypertension already have health insurance, yet they still lack the support and treatment they need to effectively manage their conditions. And national studies show that patients receive only half of the preventive services they need when they visit their doctor. At the most basic level, electronic health records convert a paper chart to an electronic one. This reduces paperwork and helps prevent medical errors. But electronic health records can also improve people's health by making preventive care the default setting. The Health Department's prevention-oriented EHRs improve health care by: •Giving doctors the fuller picture of a patient's health by integrating the patient's medical history, lab results and current medications into one electronic interface •Improving follow-up care by prompting the doctor's front office to send reminders to patients. •Increasing preventive screenings, such as mammograms, colonoscopies and pap smears, by providing automatic reminders during routine medical exams. •Tracking prescriptions and flagging potential interactions •Allowing doctors and patients to track blood pressure and cholesterol control with simple charts and graphs. •Highlighting the most effective drug treatments (and doses) when a diagnosis is made •Providing instant referral when a patient needs care •Reducing delays in treatment by sending prescriptions electronically or by fax •Tracking medication use and identifying patients who need more assistance to take their prescribed treatment •Tracking quality of preventive care over time, and in a comparable way between different doctors and different practices.
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