Electronic medical records and veterans healthcare reform

Healthcare Reform

Reform and Electronic Medical Records

An Interview with Bernie Saunders

"Imagine a world where everything important about a patient is known to the physician the first time that patient presents," says Andrew Rubin, vice president for NYU Medical Center Clinical Affairs and Affiliates in New York City (Mann, N.d.).

When doctors have complete and accurate record of the patient's medical health history they have the potential to reduce errors and improve patient care. There are many cases in which a patient may not be able to understand or recall many of the things that pertain to their own care. Having a comprehensive record that can be updated in real time and transferred to and from health care providers electronically could provide major improvements in the quality of care. There would be less chance that a diagnosis is missed because of missing information. "We need to be able to implement an electronic medical record where physicians can talk to each other about patients, and hospitals and physicians can communicate back and forth and share critical information on tests done and previous diagnoses, so that everyone involved has the patient's medical history at their fingertips (Mann, N.d.)."

Bernie Sanders and EMR

Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders, right, and House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Jeff Miller have crafted a bipartisan deal to improve veterans' health care that would authorize at least $17 billion to fix the health program scandalized by long patient wait times and falsified records covering up delays (AP, 2014).

Representative Sanders, you worked diligently for well over six weeks crafting this bill, why is this issue so important to you?

"Funding for veterans' needs must be considered a 'cost of war' and appropriated as emergency spending," Sanders said. "Planes and tanks and guns are a cost of war. So is taking care of the men and women who fight our battles (AP, 2014)."

What are your constituents most concerned about regarding health care reform?

The constituents in Vermont are definitely appalled at the lack of healthcare that has been given to our Veterans. Not providing this population with adequate healthcare after they return home to their families is both morally wrong as well as an ineffective policy. If many of these soldiers were provided adequate care, then they could return to the workforce as civilians and led relatively normal lives. Instead they are ignored and neglected by the ill equipped Veterans Administration (VA). The VA has been the subject of many scandals in fabricating data to mislead the public about have grave the situation for veterans really is.

What reforms are target with the 17 billion dollars requested?

The bill includes $10 billion in emergency spending to make it easier for veterans who can't get prompt appointments with VA doctors to obtain outside care; $5 billion to hire doctors, nurses and other medical staff; and about $1.5 billion to lease 27 new clinics across the country, lawmakers said (AP, 2014). The bill also would expand a scholarship program for veterans, allow all veterans to qualify for in-state college tuition and grant the VA secretary authority to immediately fire senior executives, while providing employees with streamlined appeal rights.

"This bill makes certain that we address the immediate crisis of veterans being forced onto long waiting lists for health care," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs panel (AP, 2014).

What are the trade-offs associated with recent health care reform policy?

An updated audit by the VA this month showed that about 10% of veterans seeking medical care at VA hospitals and clinics still have to wait at least 30 days for an appointment. About 46,000 veterans have had to wait at least three months for initial appointments, the report said, and an additional 7,000 veterans who asked for appointments over the past decade never got them. Sanders and Miller acknowledged the bill's steep cost, but said it would include about $12 billion in new spending after accounting for about $5 billion in unspecified spending cuts from the VA's budget (AP, 2014).