Management consultants Booz & Company say a comprehensive e-health system in Australia could produce annual savings of $7.6 billion annually by 2020.
Its report Optimising E-Health Value makes the case for government to invest in an e-health scheme that better connects healthcare providers, and improves the way that individual health records are stored and shared.
The report says reducing medication errors – largely through improved handling of health information – could produce savings of $2.6 billion annually, while improved care and preventative measures would save the health system $2.3 billion.
Adverse drug events from errors in medication are estimated to affect 10.4 per cent of patients currently treated by GPs each year in Australia. Half of these are classified as moderate to severe, with 138,000 requiring hospitalisation.
Report co-author and Booz & Company principal Klaus Boehncke said the analysis demonstrates the benefits from e-health investment, and said there was a need to build such investment in the health reform agenda.
"E-health is the crucial missing piece of the health reform jigsaw presently, and it must not be allowed to slip from view," Boehncke said.
"Indeed, the success of some of the Government's reforms, particularly the local hospital networks and primary care networks, and reduced Emergency Department waiting times, depends largely on the connectivity that a robust e-health system provides," he said.
The report says Australia's investment to date in e-health initiatives has been patchy and limited, and had tended to be focused on acute care only.
It calls for a shift in e-health focus from hospitals to networking primary care settings – GP clinics - where the volume of patient interaction is high and the potential for flow-on benefits are greatest.
"GPs are increasingly at the sharp end of providing integrated and chronic care, and their role becomes more important under the Government's reforms, with their initial focus on diabetes. There is a real opportunity to reap powerful gains by putting them at the centre of the e-health push," Boehncke said.
"With a national e-health infrastructure in place, we estimate an investment in information networking of $3,000 per annum per GP clinic could deliver up to $668,000 in annual savings per clinic, mainly through prevention and avoidable hospitalisation" he said.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): James Riley
Quelle/Source: iTWire, 07.05.2010
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