Page 20 - Health Literacy, eHealth, and Communication: Putting the Consumer First: Workshop Summary

Health Literacy, eHealth, and Communication: Putting the Consumer First: Workshop Summary

oveRvieW oF iSSUeS

for stronger regulatory oversight of providers, and 39 percent for national
voluntary quality campaigns (Shea et al., 2007).
A variety of data support health information technology (IT) as an
effective approach to improve quality, safety, and efficiency. For example,
the Center for Information Technology Leadership (CITL) in Boston issued
a series of reports examining the value and role of health IT. One study
indicated that 100 percent adoption of Computerized Provider Order
Entry (CPOE) in the ambulatory care environment could save $44 billion
annually in reduced medication, radiology, laboratory, and hospitalization
expenditures (Johnston et al., 2003). That same study found that use of IT
could prevent more than a million adverse drug events and 190,000 hos-
pitalizations per year. A more recent study from CITL indicates standard-
ized health care information exchange could, if fully implemented, result
in annual savings of $86.8 billion. This would also mean direct financial
benefits for providers and other stakeholders (Walker et al., 2005).
Additional data support the importance of IT as a strategy for address-
ing various challenges of the health care system. Research conducted at
the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston concluded that the use of
CPOE cut error rates by 55 percent, from 10.7 to 4.9 per 1,000 patient days
(Bates et al., 1998). A Kaiser Permanente study of intensive-care patients
found that the use of a CPOE system resulted in a 75 percent decrease
in incidents of allergic drug reactions and excessive drug dosages. There
was also a decrease in the average time spent in the intensive care unit
from 4.9 days to 2.7 days. These reductions led to a 25 percent cost savings
(Raymond and Dold, 2002).
How, then, should the health care industry move forward with infor-
mation technology in order to address its various challenges? In 2007,
working from a poll of more than 200 organizations across every sector
2
of health care, the eHealth Initiative developed a blueprint that provides
a common vision for shared action. The purpose of the blueprint is to
provide some initial ideas about how to move forward with the imple-
mentation of eHealth and information technology as a way of improving
health care. Much of the plan is based on work by Ed Wagner who put

2 “The eHealth Initiative and the Foundation for eHealth Initiative are independent, non-
profit affiliated organizations whose missions are the same: to drive improvement in the
quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare through information and information technology.
Both organizations are focused on engaging multiple and diverse stakeholders—including
hospitals and other healthcare organizations, clinician groups, consumer and patient groups,
employers and purchasers, health plans, healthcare information technology organizations,
manufacturers, public health agencies, academic and research institutions, and public sector
stakeholders—to define and then implement specific actions that will address the quality,
safety and efficiency challenges of our healthcare system through the use of interoperable
information technology” (eHealth Initiative and Foundation for eHealth Initiative, 2008a).

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