Electronic Health Records Could Save Lives

Kay E-Health Center is Studying Ways to Develop Health Databases to help Disabled and Underprivileged

Nikolaos Johnson
CGU Media Relations
(909) 621-4761

Tom Horan
Director of the Kay E-Health Center
(909) 607-9302 

There is currently a lot of concern in the medical field, as hospital ERs are closing down because of a lack of resources. One solution is digitizing everyone’s health records, which would speed up the process at the hospital, saving time and lives. CGU’s E-Health Center is researching ways in which the disabled and underprivileged would benefit from digitized databases.

1. Many of the people who will be aided by a central health database would be the poor and the migrant, who tend to slow down the check-in and treatment process. One day, (Horan believes) their records will be available on an interoperable system, retrievable through the internet.

2. Electronic Health Management is a topic that was recently widely reported by the Associated Press, and President Bush wants all Americans to have an electronic patient record by 2014.

3. Currently, fractious health record systems exist, but many feel they need to be centralized, for the benefit of patients and the medical field.

4. At a recent CGU-hosted symposium, health experts addressed several issues—including training and privacy concerns—that need to be addressed.

5. According to Mike Leavitt, Secretary of the US Dept. of Health and Human Services, it is "unthinkable" that 85% of US health records are still kept on paper.

6. Almost 100,000 deaths are caused each year in the U.S. due to health record errors. (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services)

Quotable

“Eventually, electronic health records will all be an integrated, seamless system. This symposium represents a significant step forward in the Kay Center’s commitment to researching and testing of e-health systems to benefit a broad segment of society.” –Kay Center Director Tom Horan

"We have a real opportunity to reduce the relentless march of health care costs while also getting dramatically better outcomes. The key is bringing health care into the information age. There is bipartisan agreement that health information technology needs to be a priority. The need for an IT revolution in health care is clear." -Patrick Kennedy (D-RI)

Background

E-Health Center:http://www.cgu.edu/pages/357.asp?EventID=249

Journal of the American Medical Association Report which compares the United States (28%) with the Netherlands (98%) in terms of usage of e-health records: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/296/24/2913

Video clip discussion of the E-Health Center (3:00): http://www.cgu.edu/pages/4142.asp

Contact:
Nikolaos Johnson, CGU Media Relations at (909) 621-4761