[Vms.sig-hu] HP OpenVMS Pearl (fwd)

2005. Sze. 19., H, 08:23:31 CEST

---------- Továbbított levél ----------
Dátum: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 13:54:35 -0400
Feladó: Skonetski, Susan <susan.skonetski at hp.com>
Címzett: Skonetski, Susan <susan.skonetski at hp.com>
Tárgy: HP OpenVMS Pearl

Dear Distribution lists,

The Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) New Orleans Medical Center database
was running on a VMScluster in New Orleans, and is now running on a 
VA
VMScluster in Houston.

Warm Regards,
Sue

Katrina Shows Need to Computerize Records
September 13, 2005 2:32 AM EDT
WASHINGTON - Federal health officials are working to open a database 
of
prescription drug records to help Hurricane Katrina evacuees piece their
health care back together.

The project, still developing three weeks after the disaster,
underscores the glaring reality that the hurricane destroyed medical
records of untold numbers of people, possibly complicating treatment
decisions for years to come.

And it's focusing new attention on the need for computerized medical
records, accessible in an emergency even if the patient is far from home
or their doctor's office no longer exists.

"There may not have been an experience that demonstrates, for me or 
the
country, more powerfully the need for electronic health records ... than
Katrina," Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt told The
Associated Press on Monday.

"This is not going to be a short-term problem," he said, pledging to
help Gulf Coast states rebuild better records systems.

The federal government's goal is to give most Americans computerized
medical records within 10 years. But it's so expensive and
technologically challenging, since systems must be compatible so the
records can be read by competing clinics and hospitals, that only a
fraction of health providers today are paperless.

As a result, doctors struggle to care for hurricane evacuees without
knowledge of past treatments or even all the illnesses they have. Even
determining daily medicines is a challenge.

"A lot of people walk in and say, 'I take a little blue pill,'" without
any idea what it was, said Dr. Bethany Gardiner, a pediatrician from
Santa Barbara, Calif., who is treating evacuees in Baton Rouge, La.

Last week, Dr. Joseph Mirro of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in
Memphis was reconstructing complicated chemotherapies for 80 
evacuated
children with cancer. Their treatments are precisely timed - they can't
be just started over. He tracked down some oncologists who fled 
flooded
New Orleans with treatment records, but relied heavily on parents'
recall and own notes of their children's treatments.

"I honestly feel quite comfortable that the worst-case scenario is we
delayed treatment" for some children, he said. But there was "a lot of
flying by the seat of your pants to get it right."

One bright exception is that even though the New Orleans VA Medical
Center flooded, electronic medical records for 50,000 patients of that
hospital and surrounding veterans' outpatient clinics survived.

On Sept. 1, three days after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, a Veterans
Affairs Department computer specialist was airlifted from New Orleans
carrying backup tapes of all the records, which by the next night had
been re-entered into computers in Houston.

"Every single thing on that computer was saved," said Charlie Gephart,
records chief for the South-Central VA Healthcare Network.

Moreover, evacuees could access some records even at the height of 
the
disaster, Gephart said. His office put patient prescriptions and other
data tracked at a separate location onto a secure Web site as an 
interim
solution.

For other evacuees, Leavitt's office is developing two programs that he
hopes will help soon:

-A database of prescription drug records from retail pharmacies and
pharmaceutical benefits managers, for 90 days preceding the storm. 
Large
drugstore chains keep such databases, meaning evacuees who bought 
their
medicines at a single chain could get refills fairly easily. But a
national database could provide a one-stop check for people who buy
medicine from more than one store or by mail.

-A pilot project to generate electronic medical records of care now
being provided in certain hurricane shelters. No one knows what 
records,
if any, survivors receive as they shuttle from shelter to shelter,
seeing different volunteer doctors in each spot.

Leavitt saw such as project in action at Houston's Astrodome, where
within 48 hours of opening Texas hospital workers set up
computer-generated records of evacuee care, including the results of
laboratory tests beamed offsite for analysis.

Just having records on a computer isn't enough, Mirro stressed. His own
hospital backs up its records on a second computer server and with 
tapes
recorded out of town. If both servers are destroyed, it would take 
about
two days to retrieve the tapes. He's now wondering whether even 
that's
enough.

"In a hurricane zone, you have to have multiple contingencies, and we
will have to have more in the future," the VA's Gephart said.

---

AP Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee contributed to this
report.

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