this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2023
59 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

37717 readers
413 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:


This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] meyotch 4 points 1 year ago

Thank you for chiming in on the slightly spurious billing claim. Yes, billing and charge codes are woven throughout EHR systems but that’s just because everything we do in health care costs time/money. It’s as much about cost tracking as cost recovery.

We measure what we treasure however and if you look at the structure of any EHR, they are steadfastly patient-centric. Billing is ubiquitous but it is more like tinsel on a Christmas tree, sort of draped lightly over and connecting everything. Pick off the tinsel and the core patient care features are unaffected.

It will take years to see the effects in large scale but I like the features that allow patients to see their test results the minute they are released. As a patient myself, it gives me a feeling of having a bit more ownership of my own healthcare.

I was intrigued to learn recently that better EHR use a patients highest education level to tailor the way genomic test results are presented in the patient-viewable chart. The same results are reported to anyone but apparently patients with higher education levels will take positive actions when provided with sufficient depth of background information. Conversely, too much background info can be off-putting for others and reduces proactive behavior changes.

I get it, it’s really easy to be cynical about health care especially in the USA where it is kinda bad in many ways for no good reason. But at least pick the right things to complain about.