Dr. Jeff Stone’s iPhone is like a peripheral brain. With a few key strokes, Stone can identify how many of his patients are diabetics and who’s due for a check-up or test.
Patients can have the doctor virtually diagnose skin lesions. They can learn how to lose weight using a calorie counter. And facts and figures on medications are right at Dr. Stone’s fingertips.
Across Georgia, a growing number of patients are encountering doctors who have adopted electronic health records and other technologies — from smart phones and iPads to Web portals — to receive better coordinated care.
The push toward electronic records is fueled, in part, by the new health care law that will encourage that providers receive payments based on results and patients’ overall health instead of reimbursing them for each visit or procedure.
But setting up an electronic system can be especially daunting for small practices. A system can cost $30,000 to $50,000 — per doctor — and takes time and manpower.
In spite of the costs, office-based doctors with some form of an electronic health record system climbed to 50.7 percent last year across the country. That’s up from 18.2 percent in 2001, according to a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In Georgia, more than 44 percent of physicians have a full or partial system in their offices, the study showed.
These increasingly complex systems allow doctors to track chronically ill patients, generate reminder lists for annual screenings and receive warnings about potential allergies to medications.
Electronic health record systems can improve efficiency and reduce costs by helping avoid duplicate testing and medical errors. Doctors can also better track preventive care.
Providers, insurers and government leaders are also turning to technology as a way to curb escalating health care costs.
The Georgia Department of Community Health recently received approval to help launch a statewide health information exchange using a $13 million federal grant.
The exchange will allow providers to electronically share information quickly and securely, said Ruth Carr, the state’s health information technology coordinator.
Still, there’s a long way to go to create seamless information sharing because providers’ different systems can’t always communicate.
While electronic health record systems are becoming more vital for doctors, other technologies are transforming the way patients receive care.
Some 38 percent of Georgia doctors use e-prescribing, a 2010 survey by the Medical Association of Georgia showed. Doctors can send an electronic prescription to a pharmacy so a medication is ready by the time a patient arrives.
Patients can avoid playing phone tag by emailing their doctors through a secure system. Doctors can use iPads to show educational videos or tools people can use to manage chronic diseases. Some offices have kiosks where patients can sign in and bypass the front desk. Web portals allow patients to make appointments, ask nurses questions and pay bills.
On Jennifer Benway’s first visit to Dr. Stone, they talked about her trying to lose weight, and he pulled out his iPhone to show her a calorie counter app.
“That was pretty cool; I didn’t even know that was out there,” said Benway, who plans to download a similar app on her own phone.
For Gainesville opthamologist Dr. Jack Chapman, telemedicine plays a bigger role in his practice. Using visual technology, Chapman can consult with a patient who is at a satellite office 45 minutes away, saving gas and time.
Chapman was an early adopter of electronic health record technology in 1996. It involved a lot of training, he said, adding, “It’s kind of like driving a car for the first time.”
A new federal incentive program through Medicare and Medicaid will reimburse providers for adopting electronic health record systems that boosts the quality of care. Providers can receive up to $44,000 through the Medicare program or $63,750 under Medicaid.
Rome family physician Dr. Anne White, has found setting up her new system to be a challenge. White bought her first electronic record system in 2000 for $6,000. It was fairly basic, but there was no more running around the office searching for paper charts.
“You had your head in the sand if you didn’t realize you had to do this to keep up in the future,” she said.
With major industry and regulatory changes coming, however, White knew she needed an updated system that could better track referrals to specialists and results, as well as look at the overall health of certain patient populations.
But the process of transferring to a new system has been rife with problems. Many records didn’t transfer over. Data had to be re-entered by hand. White’s staff can look at charts from the old system but can’t print them. She hired two employees to help deal with the new system, and her practice manager spends much of his time troubleshooting IT problems.
White bought the system early last year and estimates it could take another year to iron out all of the issues. Still, she won’t go back to paper.
“When we have it working like it’s supposed to work,” she said, “it’s going to be awesome.”
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