Becker's Hospital Review

32 CIO / HEALTH IT Why the US Health System Still Prioritizes Fax Machines: 7 Things to Know By Alyssa Rege F ax machines account for 75 percent of all medical communication, according to a report by Vox. While most industries abandoned the use of fax machines to transmit data during the 1990s, the medical industry is still heavily re- liant on the technology to send information between health institutions, the report states. Here are seven takeaways regarding the health industry's use of fax machines, accord- ing to Vox. 1. Former President Barack Obama signed a stimulus package into law in February 2009 that included more than $30 billion to incen- tivize physicians to adopt digital health re- cords. e law also called on the ONC to de- velop a program to distribute the funds. EHR use grew from 9 percent in 2008 to 83 percent in 2015 due to the administration's incentives, the report states. 2. While the transition to EHRs allowed phy- sicians within the same facility easier access to patient information, the Obama administra- tion's incentives didn't account for the need to share records between various organizations, leaving a significant number of institutions to continue faxing the necessary records. 3. David Blumenthal, MD, president of e Commonwealth Fund and head of the ONC from 2011 to 2013, told Vox officials were slightly naive in expecting competing hospi- tals to share patient information. "We don't expect Amazon and Walmart to share background on their customers, but we [did] expect competing hospital system[s] to do so," Dr. Blumenthal said. "ose institu- tions consider that data proprietary and an important business asset. We should never have expected it to occur naturally, that these organizations would readily adopt informa- tion exchange." 4. ere are also additional economic in- centives for physicians to continue using fax machines and to keep from sharing patient records. While it may be more convenient for the patient if physicians from various institu- tions all have access to their records, sharing records also makes it easier for patients to see competing providers. By making patient re- cords accessible only to physicians within the same system, patients are more encouraged to stick with those providers, the report states. 5. Dr. Blumenthal said the incentives the Obama administration devised required hos- pitals to have the ability to share information, but didn't mandate that they do so. Accord- ing to Dr. Blumenthal, most hospitals made the rational business decision not to invest in digital technologies that would make it easi- er for competitors to potentially swipe their patients. 6. Competing EHR companies also do not have much incentive to make their technol- ogies compatible with other EHR platforms because it minimizes their competitive ad- vantage in the marketplace, the report states. 7. Farzad Mostashari, MD, co-founder and CEO of Aledade and former head of the ONC aer Dr. Blumenthal, told Vox the only way to get rid of the fax machine is to outlaw it. However, Don Rucker, MD, who currently leads the ONC, reportedly believes better de- signed EHRs will allow healthcare providers to share and transfer data more freely, accord- ing to the report. n Health IT Investments on Track for Record-Setting Year: 3 Things to Know By Julie Spitzer H ealth IT investments from the beginning of fiscal year 2017 through the third quarter reached a record high, according to data pub- lished by Healthcare Growth Partners. HGP monitored 492 investment transactions through the third quarter, representing 312 U.S. and 180 non- U.S. organizations. Here are three things to know. 1. U.S. organizations saw $5.63 billion invested since the start of fiscal year 2017, for a total of 180 deals. 2. The pace of activity in the U.S. grew at a 19 percent annual rate over the last 6 years. 3. Total capital invested globally in health IT increased 46 percent annually since 2011. n Northwell Health Launches Amazon Alexa Skill to Help Patients Avoid ER Wait By Jessica Kim Cohen N ew Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health rolled out a program in the Amazon Alexa "skills" store to help pa- tients identify nearby urgent care centers and emergen- cy rooms with the shortest wait times, according to Newsday. To interact with the free program, a user would ask their Al- exa-enabled device a question about emergency or urgent care, paired with the phrase, "Alexa, ask Northwell." For example, a user might ask, "Alexa, ask Northwell for the shortest emergency department wait time," Newsday reports. A user is also able to limit their search to one region by including their ZIP code. The Alexa responses might include a facility, address and es- timated wait time. The program, created by web developers at Northwell Health, aggregates information using the health system's emergency and urgent care wait times portal. The portal analyzes check-ins at Northwell Health's 50-plus ERs and urgent care centers. n

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