Health Care?

Or just another stupid idea?

This past week I have been scanning a lot of documents. With the scanner I use, it was quite a drag. So time consuming! So, this week I have thought a lot about a conversation in the office of my doctor - my primary care physician.

First, please understand that I consider my doctor an extraordinary person. Recently, after my annual physical, I unfolded a list of questions I had saved up to ask. I used up a lot of the doctor's time. The doctor never hurried me, but answered every question to my total satisfaction. Finally, realizing I had taken so much time, I thanked the doctor and apologized for taking so much time. The doctor replied, with a smile, that I should not apologize for asking questions... it is the doctor's job to answer my questions. When I again expressed my appreciation, the doctor said, "It really is okay. But, if one day you have to wait a few minutes longer in my waiting room, please be patient as I may be answering extra questions for another patient.

Honestly... what more could you ask?

But, back to my earlier referenced conversation with the office manager. My off-hand remark was "How are things going?" The frustrated person said she was trying to figure out where they were going to get $18,000 to pay for computer programming required by the new health care law to get their patients records digitized... then, she added, we have to scan all of this. She motioned to shelves of folders, each holding the detailed medical records of one patient.

Obviously, the cost of the software would be only a down payment. The real cost would come in opening each folder, scanning each document, and then checking to see that each document was clearly readable. You can't risk a patient's life by posting medical records that are not crystal clear and accurate in every detail. Obviously, this office staff could not handle that - they would have to hire people to do the job.

I shuddered! The stuff I had been scanning was not life threatening. If one of the documents turned out to be hard to read, no one would suffer. But with my doctor's files, some one could suffer. Then I thought of the documents in my own medical files. There were reports from labs on blood work. Notes from specialists who had performed tests. All on different kinds of paper - some with scribbled notes by a technician. My doctor, who knows me so well, could decipher them. Could another medical professional, far away, looking at a computer screen?

It seemed so simple: put the patient's records on line, improve care, improve accuracy, save lives. Now, I realize it is just another hair-brained idea from someone who has no idea what is involved... a hair-brained politician or bureaucrat. A hair-brained idea that is going to increase the cost of medical care - and could well endanger some patient's health.