Essay on "Healthcare Government Regulations the Role"

Essay 6 pages (2113 words) Sources: 3

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Though some estimates say that there is an error in 1 out of 10 electronic prescriptions (By the Numbers, 2011) the experience I have had working with electronic prescriptions is that many more errors are made in transmission of electronic prescriptions and many more errors are also made transmitting those prescriptions from the electronic format to a physical prescription due to the format of the e-prescribing system as well as core errors in the prescriptions themselves. Errors like capsules vs. tablets, quantity of medication, days supply, extended release vs. immediate release, wrong drug pick and the sig of the prescription (that eventually tells the patient how to take the drug) occur in more like 1 in 6 prescriptions and require follow up to doctors or result in errors. These errors also seem to be occurring at an average rate that is not significantly declining as people become more and more used to working with the systems. There are likely several contributing factors to the continuation of these errors but they none the less make filling these prescriptions exceptionally difficult, even though they are received by the pharmacy faster than other modes like fax or handwritten prescriptions they ultimately contribute to potential patient harm.

Regulations that are in place that mandate electronic patient records and e-prescribing systems are standards that must be enforced when using portable electronic formats for sensitive data. The most commonly known legal regulation system with regard to patient privacy is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which acknowledges that this new electronic format must comply with patient and provider security regulations to ensure that individuals who should not, do not have access to health information and that the only exchange of such information should be done with the knowledge of the patient and for legitimate medical and/or billing reasons only. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service "HIPAA General Information: Overview") For this reason all old and new electronic medical record systems must be HIPAA compliant form the very first day it goes live and/or contains private confidential patient information. This required development of relatively sophisticated systems in rapid succession by IT professionals and outside of large hospitals with on site IT assistance the burden has been more than fiscally costly to providers, which may ultimately result in another loss of providers, further reducing patient access to healthcare at a time when the whole industry is on the brink of needing to care for millions more patients.

In short, though both the Medicare system and the HIPAA regulations are ultimately designed to improve access to care and make the care patients receive of higher quality and equity, yet it is also clear from the above research and some experience in the medical care that these government regulations and agencies also create barriers to provision of care. It is very unlikely that any regulations that are complicated will ever pass every test and result in 100% error free systems or create systems that universally meet the overall goals they were designed to achieve, yet a great many serious unintended consequences will likely continue to follow and effect health care delivery, as a result of government agency regulations for a long time to come.

Resources

By the Numbers. (2011). Modern Healthcare, 41(27), 9.

Prial, D. (2007, July 18). A painful prescription. Record, The (Hackensack, NJ).

Rothstein, M.A. (2011). Currents in Contemporary Bioethics. Journal Of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 39(1), 91-95. doi:10.1111/j.1748-720X.2011.00553.x

Webster, P. (2011). Value of e-prescribing questioned. CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal, 183(14), 1575.

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