4 ms·

American doctors all use fax machines and “heavy paper files” to transmit referrals. Who cares? An enormous amount of working Americans have no healthcare at a

American doctors all use fax machines and “heavy paper files” to transmit referrals. Who cares? An enormous amount of working Americans have no healthcare at all. Would you prefer that?

hutzlibu 5y ago
Maybe with some modernisation the system would work better and therefore cheaper, so more people could afford it. In theory.
- nopenopenopeno 5y ago
  That is not a theory anybody familiar with the matter tends to agree with.
- AlexandrB 5y ago
  Honestly? I don't want the medical system to be "modernized". The advantage of paper files is it's much harder for a security breach at a single facility to lead to everyone's records being leaked to every bad actor out there. "Modern" industries like social media tend to leak personal information like a sieve.
  - giantg2 5y ago
    Already done in the US https://www.usfhealthonline.com/resources/health-informatics/electronic-medical-records-mandate/ https://www.usfhealthonline.com/resources/health-informatics...
gillibob 5y ago
91.4% of Americans have health insurance. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-274.html https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-27... I'm Canadian, east coast. Our Health Care system is garbage and a lot of people end up going to private hospitals because the public sector can't handle the load, even pre-covid. People have repeatedly died waiting in hospital halls waiting for care that never came. Our healthcare system has almost nothing to be taken example of
- Insanity 5y ago
  A friend got a head injury (kid kicked her on the ear pretty hard) and had to wait about 5 hours in the ER before they could see her, they sent her home saying it would be nothing bad. Two days later she went back and they concluded she had a concussion..
  - nopenopenopeno 5y ago
    A man recently died of a heart attack in my local ER’s waiting room 10 minutes after showing up complaining about heart pain. The only reason he died is they didn’t have enough staff on hand. This was a couple of months ago, in the US. A few nurses walked out crying and never came back when it happened. My sister used to work at the hospital as a nurse and she quit because of similar things that were a regular occurrence. It’s all about saving money. “Just In Time” healthcare.
cpsns 5y ago
The Canadian Healthcare system will never improve if we keep saying "but, but it's better than Americas!". Our healthcare system is a disgrace and our governments only get away with it because they can point to the bogeyman down south.
- barbazoo 5y ago
  Is there really a "Canadian health care system"? I feel like it heavily differs between provinces/territories. It also depends on whether where on the spectrum from urban to rural you live, don't you think?
giantg2 5y ago
Well... not really paper files. As of a few years ago, it was mandated that provides maintain digital records. They could still send paper, but most seem to use disc and myChart stuff. And yes, fax is still prevalent as well (mostly legal compliance reasons in my opinion).
Insanity 5y ago
So my viewpoint is EU, not America.. In my home country, _most_ of the files are electronic (EMRAM stage 6 for the main hospital network, covering most of the country https://www.himss.org/what-we-do-solutions/digital-health-transformation/maturity-models/electronic-medical-record-adoption-model-emram https://www.himss.org/what-we-do-solutions/digital-health-tr...). I can see any specialist (almost any GP) and they'll get limited time access to my entire patient history. I don't have to worry of getting a second opinion from someone who "doesn't have my history". Plus, I get insight into this data myself through an app (or web platform), where I can view the scans and take them to someone outside of the network if I want to. Pharmacies will also start sharing data, so a GP can enter the data in a system which any Pharmacy can then enter (with your electronic ID), so no need for paper subscriptions either. It just gives me peace of mind. :-)

American doctors all use fax machines and “heavy paper files” to transmit referrals. Who cares? An enormous amount of working Americans have no healthcare at all. Would you prefer that?

hutzlibu 5y ago

Maybe with some modernisation the system would work better and therefore cheaper, so more people could afford it. In theory.

nopenopenopeno 5y ago
That is not a theory anybody familiar with the matter tends to agree with.
AlexandrB 5y ago
Honestly? I don't want the medical system to be "modernized". The advantage of paper files is it's much harder for a security breach at a single facility to lead to everyone's records being leaked to every bad actor out there. "Modern" industries like social media tend to leak personal information like a sieve.
- giantg2 5y ago
  Already done in the US https://www.usfhealthonline.com/resources/health-informatics/electronic-medical-records-mandate/ https://www.usfhealthonline.com/resources/health-informatics...

gillibob 5y ago

91.4% of Americans have health insurance. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-274.html https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-27... I'm Canadian, east coast. Our Health Care system is garbage and a lot of people end up going to private hospitals because the public sector can't handle the load, even pre-covid. People have repeatedly died waiting in hospital halls waiting for care that never came. Our healthcare system has almost nothing to be taken example of

Insanity 5y ago
A friend got a head injury (kid kicked her on the ear pretty hard) and had to wait about 5 hours in the ER before they could see her, they sent her home saying it would be nothing bad. Two days later she went back and they concluded she had a concussion..
- nopenopenopeno 5y ago
  A man recently died of a heart attack in my local ER’s waiting room 10 minutes after showing up complaining about heart pain. The only reason he died is they didn’t have enough staff on hand. This was a couple of months ago, in the US. A few nurses walked out crying and never came back when it happened. My sister used to work at the hospital as a nurse and she quit because of similar things that were a regular occurrence. It’s all about saving money. “Just In Time” healthcare.

cpsns 5y ago

The Canadian Healthcare system will never improve if we keep saying "but, but it's better than Americas!". Our healthcare system is a disgrace and our governments only get away with it because they can point to the bogeyman down south.

barbazoo 5y ago
Is there really a "Canadian health care system"? I feel like it heavily differs between provinces/territories. It also depends on whether where on the spectrum from urban to rural you live, don't you think?

giantg2 5y ago

Well... not really paper files. As of a few years ago, it was mandated that provides maintain digital records. They could still send paper, but most seem to use disc and myChart stuff. And yes, fax is still prevalent as well (mostly legal compliance reasons in my opinion).

Insanity 5y ago

So my viewpoint is EU, not America.. In my home country, _most_ of the files are electronic (EMRAM stage 6 for the main hospital network, covering most of the country https://www.himss.org/what-we-do-solutions/digital-health-transformation/maturity-models/electronic-medical-record-adoption-model-emram https://www.himss.org/what-we-do-solutions/digital-health-tr...). I can see any specialist (almost any GP) and they'll get limited time access to my entire patient history. I don't have to worry of getting a second opinion from someone who "doesn't have my history". Plus, I get insight into this data myself through an app (or web platform), where I can view the scans and take them to someone outside of the network if I want to. Pharmacies will also start sharing data, so a GP can enter the data in a system which any Pharmacy can then enter (with your electronic ID), so no need for paper subscriptions either. It just gives me peace of mind. :-)