A Case of Murder and EHRs -- Chapter Two
A Case of Murder and EHRs
Copyright 2007 by Peter J. Groen and Jaime Nasuti.
Published with permission of the co-authors.
CHAPTER TWO
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Congressman Stan Martin listened to a seemingly endless series of horror stories presented at the Congressional hearings. Many of these stories were very similar to his own. Stories of citizens seeking care both in New Orleans and elsewhere across the country. Tens of thousands of evacuees learned first-hand how unprepared the U.S. was to deal with this kind of natural disaster. Even with all the technological advances we have made in health care, it became clear the health care system as a whole was inadequate. The loss of the paper charts of thousands of New Orleans residents seemed to be the cause of most of the medical disasters. It became obvious to Congressman Martin that our country was not fully embracing IT advances -- medical facilities were still running on paper!
However, one surprising story emerged from the hearings -- a success story from a most unlikely place, the veterans' health care system. The congressman found it hard to believe, but the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was the only health care system to continue to provide uninterrupted care to its patients no matter where they showed up after the storm. Because all VA patient records were computerized and backup copies were kept at a remote location hundreds of miles away, no records were lost due to the storm or the flooding that followed. As patients showed up in Baton Rouge, Houston, Washington, D.C., and other VA medical centers across the country, doctors were able to pull up copies of their electronic health records and effectively care for the evacuees.
Congressman Martin was a military veteran, having enlisted right out of high school as a way to see the world and pay for college. When his military service ended, he took advantage of the GI Bill benefits package for veterans. The GI Bill paid for his undergraduate and most of his graduate school expenses. Because he was not wounded during his tour of duty in Vietnam, he had never gone to the VA for medical care. Nonetheless, having seen movies like "Born on the Fourth of July," he had come to believe the stereotypes associated with the VA healthcare system...the care was sub-standard and admission to a VA medical center was to be avoided at all costs.
So how could the VA be the most notable major success story to come out of the Hurricane Katrina disaster? Stan vowed to look closely into the phenomenon.