Bloomberg Runs Out of Patience on Medical Records

Posted on | February 28, 2008 | Comments Off on Bloomberg Runs Out of Patience on Medical Records

City hospitals will go electronic on their own It was over a year ago, in Washington, that Michael Bloomberg went public with his own vision for a national health care system. I was there that day, and had the impression that the NYC mayor was just galled by the lack of national leadership on a issue that he uniquely understands (given his background in new media) as fundamentally a communication and planning challenge.

Now he’s resurfaced, is speaking out, and moving forward. His words last Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008: "People keep talking around in circles and no one ever does anything and it keeps getting worse and worse." The plan? To combine $30 million in city funds with $30 million in federal dollars to help the city’s doctors go electronic with their records. If you have 30 percent of your patient population in Medicaid, you are eligible for assistance. 200 doctors with 200,000 patients have committed, and the goal is to reach 1,000 doctors and one million patients.

The problem with all this, of course, is segmentation and immobility. Health increasingly has no geographic boundaries. Both the advancement of prevention, and the management of chronic disease require a seamless continuum of care, longitudinal forward-facing planning, and virtual connectivity that ties the people to the people caring for the people, anytime and anywhere. More "bits and pieces" will likely make things worse, without any significant gains in efficiency, access or productivity. It would be more logical to launch a health record solution from the consumer side, and let the caregivers climb aboard, than the other way around.

No one knows this better, of course, than Michael Bloomberg. Says he, "Sadly it is only for New York City. Hopefully the rest of the country and the rest of the world will learn. By bringing this health technology to New Yorkers, we are building a national model for a health care system that works, by preventing illness rather than merely treating people after they’re already sick." Noble? Yes. Well-intentioned? Yes. But also "under-visioned" and probably not transformational.