EHR Adoption Inhibited by State Level Privacy Laws

EHR adoption has encountered a great obstacle, the varying state level health privacy laws. Because each state has different laws, a standard off-the-shelf software cannot be utilized across the nation. Proprietary vendors, therefore, must customize each system to fit the needs of the health organizations in each state. This customization does not come without a high cost though. Consequently, the high price tags for customization can and are deterring many health organizations from adopting EHR's.

What's a possible solution? Open source health systems...Open source systems can be easily customized to fit the needs of the users at no or minimal costs. Therefore, open source becomes an even more viable solution for health organizations with tight budgets.

To read the study published by the Harvard School of Medicine and the MIT Sloan School of Management about the inhibiting factors for EHR adoption , click here.

Security is Essential NO Matter the System Type

No matter if a system is proprietary or open source, health systems in general must place security at the forefront of its agenda items. Protecting personal health information should be the fundamental element of all health systems, no matter whether they are proprietary or open source. Recently, a hacker stole 8,257,378 patient records and a total of 35,548,087 prescriptions from the state of Virginia's health records system. This is a harsh wake-up call for the healthcare industry. Even though there is a dramatic push for healthcare providers to adopt health systems today, each healthcare provider must walk carefully and cautiously in its adoption of an electronic system. Security is essential and must be present in all health systems before adopting them. The debate between open source vs. proprietary health systems must be halted momentarily as a pressing need arises for all healthcare software providers to collaborate to guarantee the protection of American health records. There will be a severe backlash against any type of health system and their adoption if EHR's cannot be secured.

Support the Open Sourche EHR Bill

Please consider taking the time to help in the process of passing the open source EHR bill proposed by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV. This bill will enable rural communities to adopt health systems and not have to incur the dramatic costs of many proprietary software vendors. This bill enables the rural health providers to become part of a national health information network, which benefits the health of everyone by sharing information for best practices, cures, etc. It is understood the benefits of connectivity of healthcare providers, and this bill proposal makes this vision a true reality. Follow the information listed on Ben Mehling's blog on MedSphere.org to help support the passing of the bill.

Sun Microsystem Powering CONNECT

Sun Microsystem's open source software is one of the major components powering NHIN's CONNECT health system. Sun's open source mentality helped influence the actual platform that the NHIN would adopt in offering its government provided health information software, CONNECT. With Sun potentially being bought by Oracle, it will be interesting to see if the CONNECT platform will continue to remain open.

Open Source's Big Week

Last week was acknowledged by many as a big week for the open source health community. With Rockefeller's open source health bill proposal and MedSphere signing on to implement OpenVista for the Connecticut psychiatric hospital, much headway was made for open source becoming more mainstream and a truly viable source for health systems. Laura Landro of the Wall Street Journal expanded upon the week's events in her article entitle, "An Affordable Fix for Modernizing Medical Records." In the article, Laura highlights the major players of open source as well as the fundamental drive for implementing open source health systems. Now, it will simply be a matter of time before one can judge whether the implementation projects are successful and whether the bill passes. If either or both of these events occur, the open source health community will once again gain substantial grounds within the healthcare systems arena in the United States.

Open Source Gaining

Matt Asay, blogging on CNET, recently posted results from Gartner that illustrate the gains open source is making in comparison to proprietary software. This is, however, a general study of open source vs. proprietary systems. It does not focus on simply open source vs. proprietary health systems. However, we can infer that the adoption of new open source health systems play a role in Garnters predictions for the next budget year. Garnter demonstrates how open source is being budgeted more for the next year while proprietary systems are actually losing ground in the budget for the next year. Overall, this prediction provides another push for open source health systems.

Psychiatric Hospital in Connecticut Implementing Open Source Health System

Silver Hill Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Connecticut, has just signed a five-year contract with MedSphere for the implementation of the software OpenVista. Because of the success of the implementation of OpenVista with the VA, it is being used as a model for this Connecticut hospital's implementation. If the implementation of OpenVista is successful, then this could mark a major turning point for open source health systems. A more mainstream, non-government health provider is taking the steps forward to acknowledge and adopt open source, which symbolizes a change in the landscape for health systems. It will not be simply proprietary systems are the best and only option. Open source systems will come to compete on the same playing field as proprietary systems.