George Voinovich: “I wish to speak about a bill my colleague Senator Carper and I introduced today, the Electronic Personal Health Records…”

“I wish to speak about a bill my colleague Senator Carper and I introduced today, the Electronic Personal Health Records Act. The purpose of this legislation is to provide for the establishment and maintenance of electronic personal health records for individuals and family members enrolled in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan, FEHBP. The widespread adoption of health information technology, such as electronic health records, EHR, will revolutionize the health care profession. In fact, the Institute of Medicine, the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, and other expert panels have identified information technology as one of the most powerful tools in reducing medical errors and improving the quality of care. Unfortunately, our country's health care industry lags far behind other sectors of the economy in its investment in IT. The Institute of Medicine estimates that there are nearly 98,000 deaths each year resulting from medical errors. Many of these deaths can be directly attributed to the inherent imperfections of our current paper-based health care system. This statistic is startling and one that I hope will motivate my colleagues to take a close look at the goals of our legislation.”