[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 64 (Monday, May 16, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H3265]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SAVES MONEY AND LIVES

  Mr. MURPHY. Madam Speaker, today I had the pleasure of meeting with a 
group of bright students from Jeannette High School in Jeannette, 
Pennsylvania. In today's world, so many high school and college 
students make information technology a common part of their everyday 
lives. They have learned so much about technology that it is 
commonplace in America to use a card to access your bank machine. In 
fact, anywhere in the world one can do that. We even take it for 
granted that you can take your car to have an oil change, and the 
person who is doing that oil change will be able to tell you all about 
your car, when your last oil change was done, where, how much, et 
cetera.
  But in America today if you try and access the same sort of 
information about your own health, your needs in a hospital, hospitals 
are often at a loss to gather that information. Even the best hospitals 
in America have that trouble. So today in America thousands of patients 
are having unnecessary tests, undergoing surgeries they do not need and 
taking harmful drugs due to our paper-based health care system, and the 
consequences are deadly and costly. Because of this, sadly, hundreds of 
patients will die today and thousands more will be put at risk. And all 
of this can be prevented. Simply put, paper kills.
  To solve this problem, I have introduced, along with my colleague the 
gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Kennedy) the 21st Century Health Care 
Information Act, to make it easier for doctors to take advantage of new 
technologies, including electronic medical records and electronic 
prescribing into their everyday practices. Electronic medical records 
and electronic prescribing centralizes patient information in a secure 
and confidential manner to improve patient safety and increase the 
quality, availability and accessibility of health care.
  Congress can no longer ignore the over $100 billion in savings and 
the countless number of lives that can be saved by these new 
technologies. If you believe in saving lives and saving money, I would 
urge my colleagues to support this legislation to prevent further 
medical errors from taking the lives of those whom we hold dear.
  Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues if they wish to learn more about 
the benefits of health information technology and this act to visit my 
website at murphy.house.gov.

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