In my recent blogs I have been addressing the lack of office efficiency and automation within the health care industry as compared to other industries that have been dealing with "global competition" for decades. I recently had the opportunity to attend the HIMSS 11 Conference in Orlando and was delighted to find numerous examples of signs of change signaling, to me anyway, that the healthcare industry is finally entering the twenty-first century.
While visiting with EMR software providers it was clear that they too envision a world with appointments being held on time in an effiecient modest office setting. I have previously mocked this industry as to the number of secretaries, or more the politically correct "office personal" a doctor requires and I am pleased to see that this waste and added on cost is going to evaporate at some point soon. Items like bills, personal information and test results can be emailed to you. Some systems allow the patient to have an username so one can view his or her health record and test results online. These new systems even allow you to post questions to your Drs office and make appointments online. You can also maintain your personal information if you like.
Later in the conference, I came across several outsourcing companies looking for third party vendors to be representatives for their services. Some of these companies are setup to provide outsourcing of the complete set of office functions before and after the patients encounter, including scheduling, EMR, coding, billing, collections etc…. A number of these outfits were foreign, as in India, and I thought to myself "yes, healthcare is now facing global competition". For sometime now I have visioned the perfect small office as being one that would include one office person, one nurse and the outsourcing of all other office functions to someplace far away. In this way the doctors could be doctors and the office would be efficient, friendly and effective.
Lastly, being an old software/hardware hack I enjoyed seeing the various technical devices coming into the market from other industries. Items like a wristwatch for elderly that also acts as a phone, locating device, heart rate monitor and even has a blood pressure device so that these statistics can be monitored 24/7.
In closing I would recommend to anyone who has an interest in the healthcare industry that they attend the next conference if at all possible. I for one found it exciting, educational and enlightening.
No comments:
Post a Comment