"This is a win-win situation for Wisconsin patients and doctors alike," Governor Doyle said. "Making the transition to electronic medical records can prevent deaths and reduce administrative costs."
With electronic health record technology, a doctor will be able to instantly access the patient's history, including allergies, medications, previous test results, x-rays, CAT scans and other important pieces of information. The technology will help the doctor determine what tests to run based on the patient's history, and, when a patient shows certain symptoms that lead to a particular diagnosis, the technology will prompt the physician with possible treatments. This will ensure that the doctor is also receiving updates about new treatments that have been developed for certain ailments.
The technology will also be useful in those instances when a patient and his attending physician may need it most -- in emergencies. Often in an emergency room situation, a person is not receiving care from his or her primary physician. With health information technologies that communicate across health care systems, patients' records can be quickly accessed to assist the attending physician with treating the patient -- based on their medical history.
"The field of medicine has yet to harness the power of information technology at the most important point in the health care system -- patient treatment," Governor Doyle said. "This board will develop a road map for the private and public sectors to move forward in a coordinated way, develop this capacity for Wisconsin in a way that improves care for the Wisconsin population, and reduce overall health care costs for both the public and private sectors."
Approximately 30 percent of health care spending -- up to $300 billion each year nationwide -- is inappropriate, redundant, or unnecessary. Wisconsin alone spends about $6 billion on unneeded, or in some cases dangerous, treatment of patients. In fact, according to the U.S. Institute of Medicine, up to 98,000 people in the United States can die every year from medical errors.
