Picture a health care information world where physicians eliminate 50 minutes a day in administrative work, electronic health records save $120 million annually, EMTs can update medical records en route to an emergency room, and – wait for it – virtually all primary care physicians and 50 percent of hospitals use electronic records. Impossible? Not for Denmark, widely considered the most efficient health information system in the world. Learn how the US compares after the break.
In comparison, The New England Journal of Medicine has reported that only 17 percent of U.S. physicians and 10 percent of hospitals use electronic records. Denmark has encouraged the health care information technology industry for 10 years now, and top U.S. health care information advisors believe a lot can be learned from the Danish system. Dr. John Halamka from Harvard Medical School, an advisor to the government on electronic health records, believes that with some key variations, the U.S. can view Demark as a future goal.
Of course, Denmark faces few of the obstacles the U.S. health system must handle – a much larger population and geographic region, a highly diverse demographic, and a very different health care privacy and regulatory system.
Do you believe the U.S. will reach similar savings as Denmark, or will the hurdles unique to the U.S. keep us from advancing to a similar level of success?
