April 26th, 2010
Reports the Morning Call:
Hariteeny Fritz was vacationing in Maine when she started getting double vision and had to see a doctor.
She went to a clinic and, in lieu of answering dozens of medical history questions, she gave the clinic staff a login and password to her online account at Geisinger Health System in Danville, Montour County. Her entire medical record appeared, including all her recent lab results and doctor visits.
The doctor in Maine didn’t have to rely on her memory to treat her or order any extra tests.
”They were flabbergasted,” said Fritz, 80, of Bloomsburg. ”They couldn’t believe that I had that information that I could carry with me all the time.”
Her experience may soon be the norm. The days of sitting in a doctor’s office filling out medical history forms could be fading faster than floppy disk drives and doctors who make house calls.
Beginning next year, doctors and hospitals that are able to share computerized medical records –– including a list of prescriptions, drug allergies, doctor visits, and test results –– will qualify for a share of $1.5 billion in incentives from the federal government. By 2015, those that don’t will face Medicare funding cuts.
”It will happen one way or another,” said Ann Torregrossa, director of the Governor’s Office of Health Care Reform in Harrisburg. ” When it does, it will totally transform how health care is delivered in a number of ways.”
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