HealthBlog : National e-Prescribing Patient Safety Initiatve, HIMSS and more

Dr. Crounse, Director of Health Services for Microsoft speaks about the free e-prescribing initiative in a very positive way. The interview is very good and he explains how IT Technology is going to grow and change. Scroll down to the bottom to the page links and video interview.

I sent an email out a couple weeks ago on how to enroll and get started with E-prescribing, and have also linked to the site on my new blog. I have had a couple emails from physicians thanking me for the information as I refer them to the site. As we all know today hospitals need doctors more than doctors need hospitals. The E-prescribing initiative is a free service that participants had to pay for in the past. Spread the word to colleagues and others than can immediately benefit.

So I ask, what is your hospital doing for you the physician? Is your hospital giving you helpful IT information that you can use? Do meetings cover various areas of health care IT? I have seen some hospitals taking this task on with a vengeance and really working to solidify their relationships with physicians, to the extent of offering in person support at the offices to enable the physicians to partake and benefit from the technology as the hospital makes each portion available. They recognize the need to make each portion available as soon as it can serve the purpose without delays to roll out one huge project at once. This actually works better as it becomes a progressive learning curve and not one big meal to digest at once.

Something that is definitely worth thinking about. Does your hospital work with the physician as a partner to enable progress and better health care for all? Even if the total support picture is not here altogether, there are baby steps that can be taken to bring partial and smaller solutions until the final creation of the ultimate goal is attained. This is something I hear and see every day and sometimes ask myself, is this technology fear or is there still some "old school" thinking blurring the vision and goal.

The world of IT is changing and now is the time to embrace change and new technology as those who do not are going to find themselves on the short end of the stick and working their staff members much hard than it needs to be, not to mention a continuous day full of frustrations. Along with technology also comes training, and this has been a real shortcoming in convincing the industry as a whole on this importance. One of the items he mentioned is "crane" mind set of hospital CEOs, based on his recent talk to a group of hospital CEOs. The health care industry competes today like it has never had to do in the past.

"It's time to make the move."

Some of the most profound comments are about corporate blogging and what role it plays today and the folks it reaches this way and how it opens a forum for discussions and collaboration that was not possible years ago, as it enables everyone from all walks of life to participate, whether your are in the health care business or not. The internet is the way of getting the news today of the younger generation (and some of us older ones too), and reading a newspaper in print is becoming a way of the past. This also saves trees!

All in all a very informtative interview and with prime focus on embracing and learning more about IT Technology and dealing with the road blocks encountered with others who are less motivated to accept new methodologies and tools and what we can do to narrow the gap.

We have some of the finest physicians and surgeons in the world who work with the most sophisticated medical diagnostic systems and equipment in the world and technology will only serve to make the practice of medicine better for all, which is the final goal we are all working toward. As a consultant I encourage physicians to talk and discuss items among themselves as more minds together are better than one, and try to steer away from the "me" posture and turn it around into a "we" - where we all win, patients too!

HealthBlog : National e-Prescribing Patient Safety Initiatve, HIMSS and more

Click below to go directly to the video interview.

http://health.scribemedia.org/2007/02/16/paper-kills/