Charles Boustany: “during my career as a cardiovascular surgeon, I saw far too many nurses, physicians and patients waste valuable time on…”

“during my career as a cardiovascular surgeon, I saw far too many nurses, physicians and patients waste valuable time on paperwork. And I saw situations where available critical information was not available during a crisis. Immediately following Hurricane Katrina and Rita, the need for portable electronic medical records became undeniable when thousands of patients' records were destroyed or inaccessible. But we did see some hope in that the New Orleans VA Hospital, despite being flooded, had records for 50,000 patients that survived because of the electronic nature of the records and the backup system that was available. We also saw a secure Web site, Katrinahealth.org, established through a private/public partnership that was another promising example. {time} 1345 When it comes to the use of information technology, America's health care sector has lagged far behind other economic sectors for decades. Our inefficiencies also squander billions of health care dollars that could otherwise go to helping patients. This legislation pending before the House today is critical. It will help overcome one of the most significant barriers to the adoption of health IT. Small physician practices find it financially difficult to invest in health IT equipment. The investment can run as high as $120,000 per physician. Federal statutes currently make it illegal for these providers to accept this equipment from a hospital or an insurance partner.…”