Kaiser Permanente has introduced a web-based tool to enable members to schedule appointments, view lab results, select physicians and hospitals, and order prescription refills. The service, initially rolled out to members in northern California, is expected to save the HMO half a billion dollars when fully implemented.
Kaiser has been a leader in the electronic medical records arena, having invested over $3 billion so far. An early initiative failed, but the big HMO jumped right back in with this latest venture. And progress seems to be coming, as two of Kaiser’s sites in California are converting to EMR now, with more scheduled for 2006.
The lesson here is that just because one initiative fails that does not mean the entire idea is flawed. Kaiser learned a lot from its initial efforts, and is using that knowledge to build a system that will eventually be employed throughout the HMO’s operations.
Kaiser has been quite intelligent about this effort, studying the impact of EMR on patient utilization and health status. A study reported early this year indicates that ambulatory visits decreased 9% after implementation, with health status measures remaining flat or increasing slightly.
Kaiser is one of the leading health maintenance organizations in the world, and is likely to remain so due to intelligent approaches to its business such as this one. I continue to be impressed with Kaiser’s persistence in pursuing electronic medical records; many for-profit HMOs would have given up, fired the head of IT, and remained mired in paper and disparate systems. If they even started an EMR effort. To be sure, Kaiser is somewhat unique as its members tend to stick with the plan for longer periods than its competitors; that does not diminish the value the HMO is demonstrating for the rest of the industry.
What does this mean for you?
Watch the not-for-profits closely, as they can teach lessons in efficiency, persistence, and focus that those in the for-profit arena would greatly benefit from.
Nov
18
