Mike Enzi: “no matter who we are, where we live or which Party we belong to, one thing we have in common is that all of us have been…”

“no matter who we are, where we live or which Party we belong to, one thing we have in common is that all of us have been and will again be patients under the care of a health professional who we may, or may not, have visited before for treatment. If we have already established a relationship with the doctor who is about to treat us, our problems will either be minimized, or will not exist. But, if this is our first experience with a physician or a specialist, how can we be certain that he or she has all the information that is necessary to prescribe a course of treatment and begin our care? These are the kind of thoughts that run through every patient's mind as we sit in the waiting room, wondering if the high tech equipment that surrounds us is also reflected in our physician's access to our lab reports and previous examinations. In other words, is there any way for our doctors to get to know us, before we've even set foot in their examining room? It's ironic that we live in a world where the latest news, sports and weather can make their way from the either side of the world to our computers and television sets as it happens. Our financial information is kept by our banks and is updated continuously throughout the day and is available to us almost instantaneously. Our medical records, however, are still kept the old fashioned way, on paper, and filed away. It is a tedious system, built the old fashioned way, because that's the way it was always done.…”