Awareness is important. Just ask breast cancer survivors, AIDS patients and Planned Parenthood. But few are fighting the good fight for health IT awareness. No one is planning a Walk for the Cure of bad med-tech legislation or starting a charity drive to prevent wasteful record-keeping. But thanks to the Pennsylvania Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, these issues get a day, and even a nice banner.
Tuesday, April 20, was the 3rd Annual Pennsylvania Healthcare Information Technology Awareness Day, where HIMSS presented the results of their statewide survey of healthcare providers. The event included a breakfast with legislators in the State Capitol, meetings with key leadership in the General Assembly and a luncheon at the Country Club of Harrisburg for HIMSS members. With a comfortable setting and tasty treats, legislators were ready to hear the results of HIMSS newest survey, which assessed the readiness of these medical professionals to meet proposed federal regulations for electronic medical record systems. The findings led to discussion as to whether such mandates are a good idea or not.
Our initial goal two years ago was to raise our profile with legislators here in Pennsylvania so that we could become a resource for them, says HIMSS board director Nancy Bucceri. This year, we wanted to comment on some proposed legislation talking about health information exchange. There were some provisions in the bill that we had some concerns about and we wanted to talk to the legislators about that.
Organizations like TECHQuestPA and others have already made great strides to ensure that the health IT sector continues to grow in Pennsylvania. But HIMSS believes technology companies and doctors need to be able to work together more effectively, taking all opinions and concerns into consideration. And Bucceri believes it starts with establishing a unified body to manage health info exchange.
We know from our experience in the healthcare industry that unless you can aggregate and analyze the data, you cant get to effective healthcare reform, she says. You need to be able to look at practice patterns and identify trends in care. And we want to make sure legislators understand that.
Source: Nancy Bucceri, PA HIMSS
Writer: John Steele