As one of the key issues differentiating the major parties in the upcoming election (the Coalition is threatening to axe investment in electronic health records if elected) the report sheds a little more light on Australians’ perception about electronic health records.
An Access Economics report has previously suggested that investing $6.3 billion in an integrated electronic health records system could increase the net present value of GDP by as much as $13 billion over ten years and create 30,000 jobs. But it now turns out that fewer than two out of three Australians want one.
The CSC report figures are somewhat out of whack with the 2008 findings of NEHTA (the National eHealth Transition Authority) which claimed that 82 per cent of Australians favoured a personal electronic health record. Lisa Pettigrew, Director of Health Services for CSC in Australia said she was not surprised by the new 64 per cent approval figure.
However, “We were surprised that only 43 per cent (of respondents) were aware of the electronic health record proposals,” she noted. The Newspoll phone survey which underpins the report was conducted before the May budget, which catapaulted electronic health records into the limelight, which may go some way to explaining the apparent lack of awareness.
Pettigrew said that the research had some interesting insights for both Federal and NSW State politicians as they approach elections. One issue they need to consider is that of choice, as an overwhelming majority of respondents (85 per cent) wanted to be able to dictate who is allowed to see any information which is eventually stored in an electronic health record.
CSC’s report, A Rising Tide of Expectations, which was released overnight also found that 70 per cent of Australians were not willing to contribute to the costs associated with establishing and maintaining an electronic health record, instead viewing that as a Government role.
Although the report found that 86 per cent of respondents claimed to keep some form of health records themselves, the question was framed so that even those of us who store ancient x-rays in the back of the wardrobe would class as active record keepers.
Of those who did favour an electronic health record 94 per cent believe the official medical information such as diagnoses, medications and allergies should be shared with health professionals. Meanwhile 79 per cent believed patient entered information should also be shared.
Pettigrew said that the results had not been segmented to identify particularly how clinicians or health professionals felt about the introduction of an electronic health record. She did however indicate that more work would be done in the area in the future.
Clinicians’ comments however pepper the report, with many acknowledging the value of a range of e-health initiatives. According to one clinician; "I think a better of use of the money would be in setting up access to telemedicine. I have patients that would drive four and a half hours from Mudgee and I’d look down at my notes, tell them that the results are all clear and the consultation is over in three minutes. For some patients they’ve got much more change of dying in a car crash getting here than they would from the prostate cancer that they’ve got.”
The frustration for many clinicians is that while sophisticated technologies continue to be developed to support e-health initiatives, the bureaucracy is lagging. For example, there is still no Medicare claim number that allows a GP to claim for a simple videoconference consultation, forcing rural and regional Australians to often travel long distances for face to face meetings with their doctor.
The CSC research report is accessible at www.csc.com.au/health.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Beverley Head
Quelle/Source: IT Wire, 29.07.2010
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