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There’s Gotta Be a Better Way
Some of you know that my mom is in the hospital on and off for the last two months. I have been in her city for the last couple of days so far to provide some relief for my sister and one thing I have noticed is that technology isn’t here. Since my mind is always thinking of creative ideas, I want to talk about two things here and perhaps one of the CN team (that’s you) can help me understand if there is technology for these gaps or if we can build something to meet a potential market need.
Healthcare
Why isn’t healthcare more Internet’ized? Why can’t I view my mom’s status online? She has several doctors looking at her each day, it’s nearly impossible to get each one of them on the phone. Why can’t each doctor be outfitted with a tablet pc and write their notes directly into the computer? And then I (1500 miles away) can monitor what’s going on directly. Instead, each doctor maintains all of these charts manually, and then supposedly a doctor can later on see some transcript on a computer. And how does her primary care doctor find out what’s going on and vice-versa? I can understand that her real-time blood pressure might not be available, but imagine getting the updates without spending hours of time tracking down the doctors. Not only is my time saved, the doctor’s (and office) time is saved, along with being able to know what’s going on directly.
And we can take it further… why not have a food menu (and other typical patient needs) be computerized and instead of sending around a nurse 3x a day just to write down a food order, have a simple panel for my mother to select what she wants? (and yes, why can’t they take all the meals for the day in 1 visit!).
Financial
Now this is my game, my sis was always the health, I am the financial. My mom has 15-20 or so bills that need to be paid each month. We have spent hours making sure everything is paid, but I keep wondering, "did we get ‘em all?" Is there an online tool to organize all of mom’s bills, due dates, balances, etc. and send me an email or alert when something needs to be paid? Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to put her newspaper, cable, magazines all on hold with one click? Is there a tool like this already? As all of our parents and loved ones get older or are injured, I can only imagine a tool like this would be extremely beneficial. I know for me personally, it would allow me to help my sister (who is local) by handling more of the financial needs from a far.
Finale
Maybe I am making things too easy, but there’s gotta be a better way. Not just on the financial side, but also on the family side. These simple things are the things I believe technology overlooks many times. Perhaps our resident doctor 2.0, Tony Hung can provide some insight.
[...] in late 2007 some of you might remember that my mom was in the hospital for a couple of weeks. I wrote a post about what I saw while I sat with her in the room along with [...]
It’s pretty straightforward– over-regulation, fear of lawsuits, and a very protectionist industry.
For my money I prefer the private care in a place like Thailand. You actually have levels of service– it is your choice, not some doctor’s association. You don’t need them to tell you who’s a good doctor, everyone knows.
If there’s an experimental treatment, I can choose it instead of the FDA allowing (!) me to choose it. Some bureaucrat holds off a new treatment because of possible deaths, but ignores the numbers of deaths that occur during the approval process. It’s pathetic.
The problem in this country is very much about privatization, and the fact that we have far too little of it. Far too little choice, and far too much government already. We have such an insane maze of regulation we end up with a lot of one-size-fits-all solutions.
For those that want more government, head on over to the VA or get on Medicaid before you prescribe the same for all the rest of us.
Allen, having a surgeon father, I can tell you the problems you’ve talked about are nothing compared to the more complex mess the state of medicine in our country is. If you have watched Sicko, you already know what I am talking about.
The extremes of defensive medicine and privacy paranoia are destroying our health infrastructure. As far as I can see, the only folks who come out winners are the insurance companies. As for the doctors, my Dad pockets pennies from every dollar his office officially bills.
Allen, don’t worry one day you will have free medical care. Google will own hospitals and the medical staff will have adwords on their scrubs.
First of all, I want to offer my heartfelt sincerity and best wishes to you and your family.
I have experienced two serious illnesses in my family over the last few years. My grandmother died at the beginning of last year after suffering with emphysema for a few years. My great uncle eventually died at the end of last year from rapidly progressing bone cancer after surviving with prostate cancer for nearly 20 years.
I was hardly involved at all in my grandmother’s situation, as my aunt lives much closer (geographically) to my grandparents than I or my parents do. I was tangentially involved in my great uncle’s care because he lived much closer to myself and my parents, and because my mother was the executor of his will.
However, the only advice I ended up getting out of that situation is that there are professionals that can help handle all of your medical bills, etc. if you have the money to pay them (which he certainly did).
Regarding the information being posted over the Internet, I think there are too many security/privacy concerns to make that a reality any time soon. With all of the cases lately of people getting their hands on sensitive information from large companies’ databases, I can’t really blame the medical community for keeping that stuff under wraps.
Sorry to hear about your mum Allen, The only reason I think that this information cannot be gotten online is due to patient confidentially. Also in the uk there is a move to get patient records into a national database so therefore this data just is not there yet here in the uk. I am not sure if there are the same problems in the states.
What they need is a twitter like service for patients. In fact maybe someone could develop a system with some hardware that the nurse could simply add data.
Thanks for the kind words Darren. I understand about the confidentially but if mum put me on an approved list, why can’t I get that info? Here in the States we have something called "power of attorney" which basically means I can act as her in almost all capacities.
I like the Twitter idea!
Thanks for leaking the secret out… Now everyone knows on what to focus on developing ….
just a quick note of sympathy (i know the paperwork associated with parental care after both of my parents passed away)… one link to consider would be MedBillManager to make it a heck-of-a-lot easier to organize the bills, pmts, and insurance stmts (EOBs) and also compare costs of providers as well as use reminders via email and rss.
CN has treated me to multiple hours of great thought and conversations. The least i can do is reciprocate with free access to a year of MBM for you and your siblings.
Let me know how i can help!
christopher
Treks to hospitals have shown some of what needs to be changed. First, the entire system is a dinosaur. Why have such enormous physical plants? Non-health related tasks such as laundries, cooks, housekeepers, etc. etc. etc.and non-related healthcare utilities such as gas, electric, water, all add to the bill, not to mention worker’s insurance, hospital liability insurance, should a well person visiting an in-patient get hurt.
True, some need intesive care after an operation or life-threatening reasons, but so many others don’t.
Dribble drabbles of workers visit a couple of times a day to take vital signs, administer meds, take you to the basement for x-rays or MRI scans. I could privately pay for an around the clock nurse at home and it would be cheaper than staying in a hospital.
I’ve started to see some mobilecare services such as at-home x-rays, bloodwork, etc. In some USA states, the paperwork process of the supplier and the insurance companies comprise
50% of the cost!
Again, I’ve noticed websites springing up that are trying to fix this. One offers a service that reads your blood pressure via a USB device. Another lists places for labwork that are identical to labs used by my hospitals and docs, but it costs about half of what you’re charged via your insurance company. Why? The only difference is that you use the website to schedule your own appointment (much like selecting your own seat on an airplane)and pre-pay with a credit card. No paperwork!
Democracy and technology breeds innovation and creativity.
If socialized medicine comes to America, we’re screwed!
And speaking of dinosaurs, we’ve been fighting fires with water for too long. I’ve watched huge factories burn to oblivion while firefighters stand there with a water hose! Firefighters are some of the bravest people alive, but talk about a primitive process.
All said, life is great.
betaBonnie
If you have ever been in both, you would notice that a hospital is a lot like a jail. You don’t have much choice about anything: food, clothes, etc. Thy god for privacy! If the data was freely available (hackable through Internet,etc.), insurance companies, jobs would use it against you. Just like they use the results of background investigation.