Big Idea from Barack Obama: Computerized Health Records

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Obama definitely won because of his vision and promise that he would revive the United State’s economy. Recently, he had an idea of modernizing the health care of the country by having electronic health records.

President-elect Barack Obama have this plan: Within five years, the health records must be computerized. Aside from that, Barack Obama also wants to increase the quality of the health care services in America while the cost is affordable at the same time.

Although the idea sounds good, it is almost impossible to execute this easily. There would be tons of hurdles along the way before Obama’s big idea will come true. One of which is the lack of computer systems in hospitals. Out of the 5,000 hospitals in America, only 8 percent of this establishments use computers. Aside from that, only 17 percent of the physicians in the nation keep track of their patient’s record in computers. Experts also believe that the privacy of the patient’s personal details may also be put at risk by using this kind of computerized system. And of course, another fact that may hinder this success of this system is the lack of the skilled workers that are essential in creating and implementing this kind of technology.

According to Dr. David Brailer, the hardest part in building this dream is to put a computer in every desk so that the doctors can enter and access the patient’s record electronically. Moreover, it is also a technical task that not all doctors today can accomplish.

Having a computerized health record can also be expensive as well. Studies from the Commonwealth Fund, Harvard, and RAND showed that the system may require as much as $100 billion before all the hospitals in U.S.A will get to implement this system. At least half of this amount will be paid to train the employees and other labor force that would aid in building the computerized system.