[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 14 (Thursday, February 10, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H569]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     EXPLORATION OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO DECREASE HEALTH CARE COSTS

  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, we need to explore new technologies that 
will decrease health care costs and improve patient safety. Electronic 
medical records, also known as EMRs, are a technological solution to an 
antiquated paper system.
  Often, patient records are scattered between multiple hospitals and 
doctors' offices, resulting in the likelihood that important medical 
records could be lost and that valuable data is unavailable to the 
physician when he needs it. Time is wasted trying to obtain paper 
medical records, especially in cases of emergency care, and patients 
sometimes provide incomplete medical histories which often omit or 
distort important data.
  Tens of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars are 
lost every year due to medical error, and EMRs would go a long way to 
reducing these costs. The electronic medical record centralizes all 
records on a patient and can instantly communicate this information to 
any health care provider in a secure and confidential manner.
  EMRs also have a number of other advantages. They eliminate the need 
for duplicate tests. They reduce the search time for medical histories 
and limit instances of lost files, patient recall or unaccessible 
files. They can instantly search for symptoms, findings, treatments, 
diagnoses and health care providers involved with patient care. They 
can reduce the need for additional staff and the expansive storage 
space needed to maintain paper files.
  When complications occur, medical records of an electronic type can 
allow providers to retrace the exact steps through the process to see 
if a different approach was needed. They can prompt providers to pursue 
certain avenues of treatment based upon their diagnosis, and they can 
automatically generate bills and reimbursements that reduce billing 
errors.
  Some concerns regarding electronic medical records have been raised 
about the cost. However, the key to implementing an electronic medical 
record is not to have the Federal Government pick up the whole tab.
  Health information technology companies, hospitals and medical 
practices must share information to improve the process and recommend 
standards for the industry. Let me give my colleagues an example of how 
this is done.
  This process can be expensive to implement at this stage, and the 
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center accomplished their EMR system 
via private investments that will total some $500 million. By 
implementing electronic medical records, the University of Pittsburgh 
Medical Center has already decreased the need for repeat laboratory, 
radiology or other invasive and expensive tests because the data and X-
rays are easily shared by authorized users.

                              {time}  1500

  UPMC is ranked number one in the United States and health care 
industry, and number five among all industries in the use of 
information technology, according to Information Week 500.
  We need positive examples from the business community to make the 
case for health information technology today and tomorrow. Examples of 
successful electronic medical records such as these provide the 
leadership necessary to ensure that health information technology 
becomes a reality.
  The President has already shown his commitment to health information 
technology by committing $125 million to the Office of the National 
Health Information Technology Coordinator. Now we need to work with 
private industry to continue to make the case for successful 
implementation of health information technologies.
  Mr. Speaker, if Congress accomplishes one thing this year to improve 
health care, we should work to develop incentives for hospitals and 
providers to successfully implement a secure and interoperable 
electronic health record. This will save money; it will save lives.
  As the cochairman of the 21st Century Health Care Caucus, which I 
cochair with the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Kennedy), we will 
continue to work on a bipartisan basis to fully implement electronic 
medical record systems and to reach this important goal of using this 
as a mechanism to improve health care in America.

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