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The Executive Connection SM
a publication of The Virtual Executive Coach SM
"Vision + Accountability = Success!"
In This Issue:
1. Preview
2. Executive Summary
3. Wiring the Medical World
4. Helpful Hints
1. Preview
The Executive Connection explores the creative and analytical process of business development, team-building, and executive development. We are an interactive community of executives and small business owners who desire to network with like-minded high-performance executives to enhance our knowledge, skills, and aptitudes in the competitive business world.
Published monthly, the Newsletter offers coaching suggestions around the topics of: business development, financing, marketing, networking, incorporations, mergers, human resources, governmental regulations, and tax laws.
Topics are presented from the perspective of Keith Barton and represent only his ideas on creating and running your business. Because we are an interactive community of executives and business owners, other viewpoints are welcomed and may be printed in future monthly newsletters with permission from Keith Barton.
2. Executive Summary
March, 2007
Dear Executive Connection Subscriber,
This month features information on wiring the medical world.
Wiring the Medical World
McKesson is the largest healthcare services company and their CEO Hammergren and CIO Sprat are poised to revolutionalize how medical information is collected from patients and conveyed electronically over the Internet. Although McKesson’s business is distributing pharmaceuticals, the company wants to put health records on the information highway—a controversial subject that must balance patient right to privacy with better operating efficiency and effectiveness for hospitals, clinics, and doctors’ offices.
Medical services is big business consuming 17% of our GDP and rising according to Fortune’s Geoff Colvin’s interview with McKesson’s executives in the February, 2007 issue. According to Hammergren and Sprat it’s “really not a technological issue, but one of adoption: are people ready for this?” Given HIPPA regulations and patient rights, EAPs, employee health data being available on computer for management and insurance companies who fund employee healthcare programs, greater accessibility to patient information incurs inherent risks with regard to the data being misused. One only needs to be reminded of the Daniel Elsberg incident during the Nixon presidency where the psychiatrist’s office was broken into looking for important information on a U.S. congressman. Conceivably with the right password one might be able to hack into your medical chart and review your medications, diagnoses, and medical notes about your condition including information that could damage work status.
One area that is already being implemented is the dispensing of patient medication in hospitals using a wristband with a barcode that delivers the right medication at the right time to the right patient. Medication errors account for longer hospital stays and sometimes deaths. The computer element has reduced medication errors primarily due to inaccurate charting and illegible writing that must be accurately transposed from the doctor’s note on the patient’s chart to the pharmacy, back to the nurses’ station, then to the attending nurse, and finally to the patient. McKesson estimates that over 300 thousand medication errors are caught weekly with the advanced computer tracking systems that can save many lives.
It comes as no surprise that computerization is part of doing business in almost every other industry except medicine. Spratt says “if you walk into any grocery store anywhere in the U.S., the same loaf of bread is going to get scanned the same way. But less than 20% of hospitals have a fully bar-coded medication-dispensing system. The biggest obstacle to implementing a fully electronic medical record are the doctors. Although physicians appreciate quick access to patient information, especially in emergencies, they are reluctant to give up control (and personal liability) to a system accessible to utilization review teams, peer review, and other hospital staff. This is not about paranoia, but the doctor’s professional judgment being placed on the information highway for all to see and second guess including the patients and their families.
It comes as no surprise that doctors and hospitals are now ranked by US News & World Reports by specialty care, medication errors, patient deaths, etc. in gross, opinionated surveys with questionable validity. Now the computer has the potential to compare hospitals and doctors, just like you would car safety. This makes for an interesting debate in the medical and information technology fields with more debate in the future. But rest assured that McKesson will be at the forefront pushing for greater reliability and accountability in healthcare services.
Helpful Hints:
- Next time you visit your doctor notice the computer in the patient room and ask how much of your medical record is available to clinic staff and what happens to that information.
- Medication errors cost hospitals millions of dollars in litigation and good will to the community. Would you want a computer dispensing your IV meds or a nurse checking in on you every 30 minutes?
- If you were going in for heart surgery would you want to know how many died of surgical complications and why? What’s the best way to gain access to patient information: calling your doctor or looking it up on a website?
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The Executive Connection SM Mission:
The Executive Connection SM is dedicated to helping first-time business owners and executives to recognize resistance to change, while they create and manage their own businesses. My goal is to help you transform your vision into a successful business venture with the addition of accountability structures and silent partner.
The Executive Connection SM is a publication of The Virtual Executive Coach SM and Keith Barton, Ph.D.
We would like The Executive Connection SM to be as interactive as possible. If you have feedback, comments, topics you would like addressed, or can suggest additional resources to benefit us all, please email us at any time. Send your e-mail to
keith_barton@att.net
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Archives:
You can read previous issues of The Executive Connection SM in our archive section.
About Keith Barton, Ph.D
Dr. Barton received his Ph.D. in 1972 from the University of Texas at Austin and has been a practicing therapist for over thirty years. He is a graduate of
MentorCoach and is accepting new clients.
He has been an adjunct professor at the University of
South Carolina, consultant to Fortune 500 companies in
executive development, founded and managed Texas Community
Living Ventures, Inc., in 1986 for providing group home
services to persons with mental retardation. Keith founded
and has been running a clinical practice in Northwest Houston since 1990.
He writes part-time with the goal of completing one novel a year. His desire to coach others derives from his passionate interest in helping others become
attuned to their creative powers of storytelling.
Dr. Barton has training in coaching, cognitive and family therapy and health psychology. He has published articles, made presentations and conducted workshops about:
Small Business Development
Employee Wellness Programs
Anxiety and achievement
Stress management
Self-esteem
Communication skills
Leadership styles
Core values in the workplace
Executive Development
High-performance groups
Physician support groups
Writer support groups
© 2010
The Virtual Executive Coach SM and Keith Barton.
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