Revised federal health IT strategic plan released, linked to long-term care

The adoption and use of electronic healthcare records (EHRs) are nowhere near their potential and require more investment of time and resources—likely even more than the $27 billion set aside in the economic stimulus bill, a presidential panel said recently.

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) called on the administration to be more active in developing a more efficient e-health records system. The occasion was the Dec. 8 release of PCAST’s report, “Realizing the Full Potential of Health Information Technology to Improve Healthcare for Americans: The Path Forward.”

Among the report’s findings: Up to 80% of physicians lack even some of the simplest electronic records. Physicians are seen as pivotal to the flow and transitioning of most healthcare information.

“Where electronic records do exist, they are typically limited in functionality and poor in interoperability,” the council found. “As a result, the ability to integrate electronic health information about a patient and exchange it among clinical providers remains the exception, rather than the rule.”

What the findings mean to long-term care operators, in part, is they are not alone. They are often reputed to be the slowest adopters of technological improvements in a slow-adopting sector (healthcare), but they clearly have company when it comes to clinicians needing technology improvements.

Among other things, the report calls for “government to facilitate the widespread adoption of a ‘universal exchange language’ that allows for the transfer of relevant pieces of health data while maximizing privacy.”

PCAST is urging the federal government to develop within a year a set of metrics to measure progress toward an operational, universal and national health IT infrastructure.