[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 5 (Tuesday, January 25, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H174-H175]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  FINDING AND IMPLEMENTING NEW WAYS TO DECREASE HEALTH CARE COSTS AND 
                         IMPROVE PATIENT SAFETY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murphy) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor today to discuss an 
important way to address the ongoing crisis of sky-rocketing health 
care costs. As the burden of paying for medical insurance continues to 
climb by double digits each year, it is clear that we cannot continue 
to do the same thing and expect different results.
  Efforts to reduce health care costs have focused on health and 
medical savings accounts, medical liability reform, and association 
health plans. While these steps are vital and must not be abandoned, 
there are other actions we must take if we want to make quality health 
care more affordable and accessible.
  As lawmakers, we currently have a limited focus when it comes to 
health care. Instead of always asking who will pay for health care 
services, we should begin to focus on what we are paying for. We 
continue to fund an antiquated health care system in which patients too 
often end up paying for preventable medical errors that could be 
avoided with modern technology.
  We need to institute fundamental changes to bring our Nation's health 
care delivery system into the 21st century.
  We live in the Information Age; but health care, one of the most 
information-intensive fields, remains mired in a pen-and-paper past. We 
can buy plane tickets online, take cash out of an ATM anywhere in the 
world; and yet the health care industry remains dangerously 
disconnected.
  Our inefficient health care information systems hold serious 
consequences for all of us. Patients must still carry their paper 
records and scribbled-down prescriptions from one provider to another, 
and any information that slips from their folder is lost forever. This 
lack of comprehensive technology results in medical errors, 
misdiagnosis, and needless test duplications; increases costs; and 
reduces the overall quality of health care.
  Doctors and nurses often have only brief moments to examine 
voluminous paper medical records and risk missing critical patient 
information.
  A wealth of information is available highlighting the need to 
modernize the American health care system sooner rather than later.
  The Institute of Medicine reports that over 7,000 people die every 
year just from medication errors alone, with anywhere between 44,000 
and 98,000 deaths attributed to medical errors in hospitals.
  A study by the Rand Corporation estimates that only 55 percent of our 
Nation's patients are receiving the recommended care they need.
  A recent study by the State of Pennsylvania found that 10 percent of 
hospitalizations in Pennsylvania under the age of 65 were unnecessary 
and avoidable had the patient been offered early intervention or high-
quality outpatient care.
  The absence of information technology in health care significantly 
contributes to inappropriate or inadequate treatment. These mistakes 
cost money and cost lives. According to the Pennsylvania Health Care 
Cost Containment Council, unnecessary hospitalizations cost $2.8 
billion in unnecessary treatment in Pennsylvania alone. And the Agency 
For Health Care Research and Quality reports that $100 billion a year 
is linked to medical errors in this Nation.
  Any other industry would not tolerate the mistakes and the costs 
associated with these mistakes. As far back as 1998, the Department of 
Health at the Mt. Sinai Medical Center reported the disparities between 
private business quality control and the rate of mistakes in health 
care.
  At the time, it was found that some companies had 3.4 million defects 
per

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million parts produced in electronics, and health care had an average 
of 10,000 defects per million. I do not mean that health care should be 
compared to the electronics industry, but 10,000 defects per million 
should be an unacceptable number.
  We must begin to look at health care costs in a new way, focusing on 
overall health and not simply disease, emphasizing the need to move 
forward in integrated care.
  The situation our constituents face every month when trying to pay 
for their health care insurance requires Congress to bring the 
information technology that touches every other aspect of our lives to 
the one area that may mean the most. We must promote ideas to bring the 
transformative power of information technology to every corner of our 
health care system in an effort to ensure quality, patient safety, and 
efficiency through bipartisan solutions.
  This is just one of the many measures of quality we need to be 
addressing to make health care more affordable and accessible. As co-
chairman of the 21st Century Health Care Caucus, I intend to come to 
this floor often during this session with new ways to reduce the cost 
of health care and offer tangible ways to decrease costs and improve 
patient safety, and I invite my colleagues to do the same.

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