But there are people who need medical services who don’t live in Idaho’s three primary population centers, and they aren’t as fortunate as we are. Our rural areas have suffered through a long, nagging doctor shortage, and there’s no evidence that will be changing any time soon.
Technology can help alleviate that problem — and in many states, it already has. Unfortunately, Idaho hasn’t caught on yet, and it’s about time the Gem State does.
It’s called telemedicine — allowing doctors to treat patients over the phone, online or by videoconferencing. But Idaho’s medical licensing board doesn’t accept the practice, and the board punished a doctor and threatened her board certification for prescribing a common antibiotic over the phone.
We should all agree that care needs to be taken to ensure telemedicine isn’t abused by either doctor or patient, but we should also agree that, if done responsibly, it’s a system Idaho needs to embrace. If we can use advances in technology to save taxpayer money by allowing prisoners to have hearings via videoconferencing, there’s no reason we can’t use the same kind of technology to help patients save time and money — and get the vital medications they need.
Fortunately there’s broad, bipartisan support in the Idaho Legislature. House Concurrent Resolution 46 was approved 66-2 in the House and 33-1 in the Senate earlier this year. The measure will bring all stakeholders in health care together, under the direction of Idaho Health and Welfare, to devise rules for this kind of health care delivery system.
Of course, there will always be risks. But there are also risks with conventional in-person doctor appointments. Occasionally a patient is misdiagnosed. Sometimes the wrong prescription is given. It’s not a perfect world — and never will be.
Washington state law requires a face-to-face exam at some point before prescriptions can be written, as do some 30 other states. That’s reasonable. It’s also reasonable to have careful safeguards for prescriptions for medicine that can be addictive, such as pain killers. A Columbia University study determined that opioid addiction tripled from 1992 to 2002, and opioid overdoses now kill more people than cocaine or heroin.
So yes, it will take some work to produce a system to ensure safe, secure telemedicine policy the state medical licensing board can accept. Let’s get it done. Our state is one with a large land mass but a relatively low population and a lot of retirees — many of whom don’t have a lot of money. If there’s a state that could really use technology to spare patients from in-person doctor consultations, it’s Idaho.
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Quelle/Source: Idaho Press-Tribune, 04.05.2014
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