The Stimulus Plan & Health IT: What Can It Really Accomplish?

It might be the biggest thing ever to happen to health information technology: billions of federal dollars to fund adoption and use of interoperable electronic health records (EHRs). But will health IT reduce errors, cut costs, save jobs, allow interoperability among disparate clinical systems, and transform healthcare? Could the greatest cost be the quality of medicine physicians practice?

Oh yeah, you nail the question spot on and to be honest, it really boils down to what the strategy is.

Sounds simple? Not by any chance.

In my humble opinion, getting the work-flow right is half the battle won (the other half is getting the user’s adoption and there are so many factors to the equation that one can write a few books on it) but lets face it, the last time we check, the United States of America  is a big country with 50 states.

Getting interoperability among all systems within a hospitals is a uphill task, replicating that within a State takes many men and women of great courage (and perseverance), connected the entire nation. GOD Bless America.

And don’t get me wrong, I think its a fantastic initiative and for sure, the advancement of the technology and standards of Healthcare IT bound to make leaps. This is return will translate to better and more affordable patient care for the masses.

So back to the original question asked. ” The Stimulus Plan & Health IT: What Can It Really Accomplish? ” . I don’t know but I’m very eager to find out.

For the interested, the original article can be read here.