Thank you Peter to you and your wife for sharing such a person story. I of course will have you both in my thoughts and prayers and hope she recovers quickly. It is often a personal experience that can really bring home the opportunities and challenges that remain in health care and the role that IT can play in creating a high quality, effective Patient-Centered healthcare system. It is that last goal that many people often forget.  

I am surprised that Swedish's EMR (which uses the same vendor as Group Health and Kaiser) didn't give you real time access to her labs as well as patient specific links to health information targeted to her condition?

All patients at Group Health Co-op (also in Seattle ) are given not only an "after visit summary" but can then also immediately see that same information once they are at home and ask any follow up questions via email to their care team. GHC has over 50% of their 580,000 members online (the highest uptake of an EMR in the country). Their system is unique however in two ways. It was designed starting with the patient- in fact patients could "write" to the chart even before providers could and any savings from efficiencies that the EMR (or more correctly as Dr Matt Handley of GHS refers to it a Shared Care Plan) are kept in house instead of going out the door to the insurance company.  

I offer all my best wishes to your wife for a full and prompt recovery.

That said, your post is amazingly self centered as you just take out the financial aspect.

It really makes me think of Marie Antoinette telling the hungry crowds to eat cake if they cannot pay for bread.

The Seattle Times tells on monday (front page) the story of Susan Haul who has multiple cancers and medical bills already adding up to more then $100.000 she cannot afford.

How come you can dismiss story after story of people bankrupted by the present system?

What "consumer choice" is that?

How more self-centered (blind) can you be?

What about researching what would happen to a person needing an hysterectomy and not having your resources?

Thank you for sharing this personal story, Peter.  Wishing your wife a speedy recovery.

It makes me sad and upset to read such acerbic and negative comments as the one above.  Certainly, those of us who have insurance are very fortunate and have much to thank for.  However, unless we as a society are able to have an honest an open dialogue about healthcare, things will only get worse.  It is political anathema to discuss things like entitlements vs. rights, tort reform, ambulance chasers, Medicare fraud, etc.  Then there are the even thornier issues of care for the elderly and incedibly expensive and redundant tests for terminal cases to avoid litigation, and tying insurance premiums to lifestyle choices (i.e. people who live a healthy lifestyle and take care of themselves would pay less), and passing on the Medicare overruns to the private sector, and providing full gold-plated medical services to illegals and passing that on to the private sector as well.  I feel terrible for the people without insurance who get caught up in this evil circle, but there is no doubt in my mind that any attempt at reform will just makes things worse if they do not start by addressing the fundamental issues I mentioned above.  There are simply too many people milking the system, and it is riddled with inefficiency and waste, and that is why we are paying an extra 6 or 7 points of GDP, which we cannot afford.  Let's first figure out how to bring our country's healthcare costs in line with other modern sociaties, and then figure out how to help those who are in need of it. Otherwise, the costs will just keep on going up, and in the end everyone will suffer due to the drastic cutbacks that will inevitably occur in the quality of care.

Perhaps one way to ensure that reform is meaningful would be to legislate that the politicians writing the proposed reforms get exactly the same treatment as the citizens they supposedly represent.  However, that will never happen, as we well know....

P.S. the statement attributed to Marie Antoinette is an urban legend.

Interesting post. Glad all went well. I recently had surgery and was surprised how much reliance there still was on paper charting. (When I registered, they didn't even ask me for my e-mail address -- even Starbucks has my e-mail, for God's sake!).

Anyway, in part as a result of this paper-based care, was that I was was given pre-op instructions twice by two different people (and their instructions did not agree) and I had to make seven phone calls to get an appointment that should in this day be done over the Internet.

The surgery went fine, but the post-op care was again not standardized, but varied depending on whom was on call. This is not how Toyota does it.

So I agree that there's lot's of room for improved use of Internet/technology to standardize care, practice and enhance patient education (and make everything more efficient).

One point, though on the politics: employment-based insurance such as that offered by Microsoft is subsidized through exemptions from federal and state income taxes as well as taxes for Social Security and Medicare. The amount of subsidy enjoyed by those with such coverage totals $200 billion a year. So in a way, Microsoft employees are already in a government program, at least a government subsidized program, that the self-employed and uninsured do not have access to.

Michael

Peter,

I commiserate with your experience of feeling as if you were in a patient education vacuum during your wife's (thankfully successful) procedure and recovery. I too spent an anxiety filled extended period at a hospital with a family member undergoing surgery. Having educational resources there would've gone a long way to inform me and mitigate my anxieties about the condition, procedure and treatment plan. Toward that end I have something I'd like to share the following with you, you might find this helpful to provide for your HealthVault/Amalga clients who will likely be in the same shoes we were:http://www.wired.md/krames03/. Please let me know if you'd like to discuss further.

Best regards,

Anne

Hello Peter,

Happy to hear your wife is recovering well from her operation and thank you for providing this personal story of your experiences.

In a similar vein, I have had to visit several doctors/hospitals over the last few months and in each case getting a copy of my records is time consuming and ultimately the records are provided in paper format.  When I asked if I could receive my records in a digital form factor (CCD or CCR) have been told that no, this is something that they (doctors, clinic and hospitals) do not provide, though did get the X-rays on a CD (DICOM).  Now I am left with a stack of paper and am loathed to re-enter this info into an online personal health account.  More pain than perceived value.  Did a short post on the issue suggesting that what consumers need is a "QuickStart Guide": http://chilmarkresearch.com/2009/10/20/wanted-quickstart-guide-for-personal-health-platform/

My chief concern is that if this is difficult for me, someone who works in this sector, imagine how difficult it is for the average consumer.  Little wonder that adoption and use of PHRs and Personal Health Platforms such as HealthVault is slow going.