Notes

The Personal Health Record - A WAY of Containing Healthcare Costs
Employing an individual health record can decrease healthcare expenses because most of the healthcare dollars go toward the generation of information needed to make diagnoses and offer appropriate treatment. With passing of HR. 3590, that will expand healthcare coverage to an additional 32 million persons by 2019, more patients will undoubtedly be establishing new doctor/patient relationships and the flow of health information will likely increase exponentially.

Although recently there has been a push for doctors to look at and utilize electronic healthcare record programs for management of patient health data in the hopes that you will see a centralized database of patient health information that may minimize treatment errors, the reality of the problem is, most doctors have not adopted the technology, and even if most did, as a result of differences used and recording styles, a central database would not contain all the data updated in real-time to meet healthcare needs of each patient atlanta divorce attorneys healthcare setting and situation. Therefore, the best repository of health information is you as well as your own private health record.

One scenario illustrating the cost of generating and exchanging medical data is the initial new patient stop by at establish a doctor/patient relationship. Your physician or other healthcare provider evaluating an individual for the first time needs information supplied by the patient that is oftentimes lacking because the patient isn't knowledgeable and/or because previous treatment records were not requested, requested however, not received, or requested and received but illegible. The brand new physician will oftentimes need approximate dates of diagnoses, approximate dates and outcomes of prior tests, and approximate dates of hospitalizations with some information on the care that was given. If that information isn't available, some doctors will order tests that he / she might otherwise not order had the required information been offered by the time of the individual visit. The web result is an additional cost for the patient or at the very least another element of healthcare inflation.

Many diagnostic determinations and treatment courses of action are made based on subjective data, i.e. information verbalized by the patient. For instance, in evaluating chest pain a health care provider will usually need to know when and how the pain started, the positioning of the pain, the frequency of the pain, the duration of the pain, the intensity of the pain, the standard of the pain (cramping, burning, stinging, etc.), why is it better, what brings it on, why is it worse, and other symptoms linked to the pain before making a decision whether to admit the individual to a healthcare facility to rule out a heart attack or whether to treat the patient for acid reflux outside of the hospital. Often however, because patients haven't thought about the information within an organized way and/or due to nervousness, patients feel put on the spot when asked certain questions about their symptoms and conditions. By recording information regarding symptoms and conditions to be discussed during an upcoming doctor visit, a patient is way better prepared for the visit with useful information which can reduce expenses by minimizing over-reliance on testing. Additionally, the recorded information is likely to be more accurate than information which includes not been recorded and therefore more likely to maximize the quality of healthcare received.

An individual health record might therefore also lower healthcare costs during follow-up or sick visits because a well-designed personal health record computer software enables the patient to generate pre-visit notes and journal notes about new problems and established problems, which is often printed and carried to the doctor at the time of a visit. Additionally, by updating Additional info in the personal health record the individual tends to be better still prepared to answer questions that will be presented during an upcoming visit to the doctor.

During the writing of the article the duration of the average doctor visit in the usa is approximately 16 minutes which is fairly generous in comparison to a county like Holland where it really is 8 minutes. Factors which will probably result in a reduction in the length of doctor visits in the United States include healthcare reform that may increase the amount of patients receiving treatment, the shortage of physicians, and increasing medical practice overhead. If the common amount of doctor visit in america does decrease the number of visits to address a set number of conditions is likely to increase unless more can be accomplished per individual visit.

Implementing and maintaining an individual health record in principle should reduce healthcare cost not only at the time of the new patient visit, but also during established patient visits by shifting the diagnostic emphasis from objective date to subjective data and reducing the number of required visits. The basic means by which employing a personal health record can lower healthcare costs is by enabling more efficient generation and exchange of health information.

Disclaimer: This short article is for informational purpose only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for medical consultation with a qualified professional. The writer encourages users of the Internet to be careful when working with medical information obtained from the Internet and to consult your physician in case you are unsure about your condition.

Having more than 20 years experience treating and evaluating patients I fully appreciate the worthiness of accurate patient health information and its contribution to quality healthcare and cost containment. Understand how to organize your individual health information and how to optimize health information exchange with a personal health record [http://www.proactivehealthoutlet.com/HealthFrame-Famility-Edition-Personal-Health-
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