Whether a hospital is willing to share information with competitors depends on how it gets paid, said Dylan Roby, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. Some experts, however, say competition among hospitals can be a deterrent to data sharing. If a patient already had an x-ray, CAT scan or other test at one hospital, for example, the shared database can help ensure he or she doesn’t get the same test again. The system can also benefit the many patients who end up visiting multiple hospitals.
If so, the emergency department staff can view information about the patient’s recent treatment and find out whether he or she already has a case manager somewhere else. When an emergency department enters a patient’s name into the system, it gets an alert if that patient has visited other hospitals. The hospitals share a system called PreManage ED, which tracks all of their ER patients. Since the program began on March 31, Alta Bates and Highland Hospitals have learned that they shared more than 2,000 patients, and over a third of them made six or more ER visits in the past year. So far, their partnership includes four Sutter Health hospitals and two Alameda Health System hospitals. Sometimes, a 50-page fax will arrive, which Sorrell must sift through while juggling dozens of other patients.īut that vexing reality may soon change for hospitals in Alameda County, as they team up to share patient health records and other data in real time among their emergency departments. “I have to tell my unit coordinator to call over to the other hospital and have them fax over the records,” said Sorrell. Some patients have chronic health problems that send them repeatedly to the ER, while others are seeking food, a warm bed or someone to talk to.Įven if ER staff do know about visits to other hospitals, sharing information about the patient is a struggle.
#Highland hospital oakland email to send health records for free
This story can be republished for free ( details).
0 kommentar(er)
