Merrill, France figured it out 25 years ago, achieving interoperability and eliminating paper medical records with the Carte Vitale. This green plastic credit card with an embedded memory chip is the central administrative tool of French medicine. Issued to all of France’s 66.7 million citizens and legal residents, the encrypted card contains the owner’s complete medical history (a child’s medical record is maintained on the mother’s card until age 15). The Germans followed ten years later.
I have been in practice for over 25 years. Obtaining medical records is much easier than it was when I first started out. I practice medicine in the Kansas City area and frequently require medical records from both sides of the state line. Health information exchanges have made this process much easier. Missouri has Louis and Clark Information Exchange (LACIE) and Kansas has the Konza network among others. My EMR has links to this data. I can upload records to a patient’s chart and review them before their initial visit. There are limitations. If a large health system doesn’t participate in the HIE or if the records are from a small private practice, I don’t have access. In addition, I can’t predict how robust the information is since it varies. Things aren’t perfect but they are much better than they were.
Health information exchanges are widespread across the U.S. but vary in their ability to pull in all records for all the reasons explained in this article. If KC has good interoperability in the region, you are quite fortunate.
Before I retired, I was very frustrated in our local hospital. The hospital bought EPIC, which was used in the hospital and their 50 or so outpatient physicians. As a medical oncologist using a different EHR, I was frustrated that the EPIC physicians would never send me their office notes. Never electronically and never by fax. In contrast, our EHR allowed extremely easy faxing of our office notes. Although EPIC assured me that these physicians could fax their notes, it was never done. Why? The hospital administration insisted that it was ILLEGAL for their physicians to fax their notes to another physician. It was not simply an "incompatibility" issue but a more fundamental one. If the hospital believes it's illegal to share office notes, they we're sunk.
And, in theory, against regulations if the patient has agreed to it. EPIC is the Apple of the EHR world. A teacher would check the box: "Doesn't play well with others."
Merrill, France figured it out 25 years ago, achieving interoperability and eliminating paper medical records with the Carte Vitale. This green plastic credit card with an embedded memory chip is the central administrative tool of French medicine. Issued to all of France’s 66.7 million citizens and legal residents, the encrypted card contains the owner’s complete medical history (a child’s medical record is maintained on the mother’s card until age 15). The Germans followed ten years later.
I have been in practice for over 25 years. Obtaining medical records is much easier than it was when I first started out. I practice medicine in the Kansas City area and frequently require medical records from both sides of the state line. Health information exchanges have made this process much easier. Missouri has Louis and Clark Information Exchange (LACIE) and Kansas has the Konza network among others. My EMR has links to this data. I can upload records to a patient’s chart and review them before their initial visit. There are limitations. If a large health system doesn’t participate in the HIE or if the records are from a small private practice, I don’t have access. In addition, I can’t predict how robust the information is since it varies. Things aren’t perfect but they are much better than they were.
Health information exchanges are widespread across the U.S. but vary in their ability to pull in all records for all the reasons explained in this article. If KC has good interoperability in the region, you are quite fortunate.
Before I retired, I was very frustrated in our local hospital. The hospital bought EPIC, which was used in the hospital and their 50 or so outpatient physicians. As a medical oncologist using a different EHR, I was frustrated that the EPIC physicians would never send me their office notes. Never electronically and never by fax. In contrast, our EHR allowed extremely easy faxing of our office notes. Although EPIC assured me that these physicians could fax their notes, it was never done. Why? The hospital administration insisted that it was ILLEGAL for their physicians to fax their notes to another physician. It was not simply an "incompatibility" issue but a more fundamental one. If the hospital believes it's illegal to share office notes, they we're sunk.
And, in theory, against regulations if the patient has agreed to it. EPIC is the Apple of the EHR world. A teacher would check the box: "Doesn't play well with others."