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THE NON-PUBLIC Health Record - A Means of Containing Healthcare Costs
Employing an individual health record can decrease healthcare expenses because a lot of the healthcare dollars go toward the generation of information needed to make diagnoses and offer appropriate treatment. With passage of HR. 3590, which will expand healthcare coverage to yet another 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 adopt and utilize electronic healthcare record programs for management of patient health data in the hopes that there will be a centralized database of patient health information that may minimize treatment errors, the reality of the matter is, most doctors have not adopted the technology, and even if most did, due to the differences in practice and recording styles, a central database would not contain all the data updated in real-time to meet healthcare needs of every patient in every healthcare setting and situation. Therefore, the very best repository of health information is you and your own personal health record.

One scenario illustrating the price of generating and exchanging medical data is the initial new patient visit to set up a doctor/patient relationship. A physician or other doctor evaluating an individual for the first time needs information supplied by the patient that is oftentimes lacking as the patient is not knowledgeable and/or because previous treatment records were not requested, requested however, not received, or requested and received but illegible. read more will oftentimes need approximate dates of diagnoses, approximate dates and outcomes of prior tests, and approximate dates of hospitalizations with some details of 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 available at the time of the individual visit. The web result is an additional cost for the individual or at least another component of healthcare inflation.

Many diagnostic determinations and treatment courses of action are created based on subjective data, i.e. information verbalized by the patient. For example, in evaluating chest pain a doctor will usually need to know when and how the pain started, the location 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.), what makes it better, what brings it on, why is it worse, and other symptoms associated with the pain before making a decision whether to admit the individual to the hospital to rule out a heart attack or whether to treat the patient for acid reflux disorder outside the hospital. Often however, because patients haven't thought about the info 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 pertaining to symptoms and conditions to be discussed during an upcoming doctor visit, an individual is way better prepared for the visit with useful information that may reduce expenses by minimizing over-reliance on testing. Additionally, the recorded information is likely to be more accurate than information which has not been recorded and thus more prone to maximize the caliber of healthcare received.

Additional info might therefore also lower healthcare costs during follow-up or sick visits just because a well-designed personal health record software program enables the patient to generate pre-visit notes and journal notes about new problems and established problems, which may be printed and carried to the doctor during a visit. Additionally, by updating entries in the non-public health record the patient tends to be even better prepared to answer questions that will be presented during the next visit to the physician.

During the writing of the article the duration of the average doctor visit in the usa is approximately 16 minutes that is fairly generous in comparison to a county like Holland where it really is 8 minutes. Factors which will probably result in a decrease in along doctor visits in the usa 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 the usa does decrease the number of visits to address a set number of conditions will probably increase unless more can be accomplished per individual visit.

Implementing and maintaining a personal health record in principle should reduce healthcare cost not merely during the brand new patient visit, but also during established patient visits by shifting the diagnostic emphasis from objective date to subjective data and reducing the amount of required visits. The basic means by which utilizing a personal health record can lower healthcare costs is by enabling better generation and exchange of health information.

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

Having more than twenty years experience treating and evaluating patients I fully appreciate the value of accurate patient health information and its own contribution to quality healthcare and cost containment. Learn how to organize your personal health information and how to optimize health information exchange with an individual health record [http://www.proactivehealthoutlet.com/HealthFrame-Famility-Edition-Personal-Health-Record.html] at my website [http://www.proactivehealthoutlet.com].
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