What's in your wallet?
Card gives doctors access to online medical records
"My aunt had a heart attack and was unable to communicate and tell doctors how to get a hold of her family, and she's been a chronic smoker for 30-some years, which means anesthesia would knock out her will to breathe," Workman said of the August 2007 incident.
Hospital workers could not contact family members until 12 hours after Workman's aunt was hospitalized. As a result, Workman and his cousin devised the ER-ID card, a wallet-sized card that contains information for medical professionals to access the company's Web site and retrieve customers' medical histories. Customers can include heart-scan records, medications, allergies and insurance information through the company's server.Workman consulted with doctor friends, he said, in an attempt to make the card as clinically useful as possible.
Marty Limpert, spokesman for the St. Charles County Ambulance District, said the card could be useful considering the county's new computer system in its ambulances, which allows access to the Web on the road.
The use of electronic medical records largely has centered on a transition in hospitals from paper records to electronic files. In 2005, the Bush administration strongly urged a nationwide transition in hospitals.
At that time, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it was aiding in the development of a nationwide Internet-based system to allow confidential electronic transmission of medical records. That system's development was the subject of a 2007 DHHS forum.
Workman's ER-ID seeks to provide a similar service on an individualized basis.
Not yet perfect
The concern expressed by some regarding the national system and projects such as ER-ID is security. ER-ID clients may cancel their card 24 hours a day should they be the victim of theft or have a potential breach of their privacy. Workman decided not to include a patient's Social Security number among information accessed through ER-ID.
Although Limpert sees electronic products, such as the ER-ID, as beneficial to the ambulance district and medical professionals, the Internet-based access method - as opposed to a digital card that could be plugged in to a computer - could have its drawbacks.
"Servers do go down," Limpert said. An Internet failing would inhibit access to an ER-ID customer's medical record.
In St. Charles County, Internet access in ambulances would allow paramedics to pull up a patient's medical record by the time the ambulance pulls in to the hospital. But Limpert said many ambulance districts simply do not have the funds for such in-vehicle technology.
Electronic economizes
Proponents of an electronic medical record tout its ability to cut costs, whether in paper or by reducing testing.
"Companies that are self-insured can help reduce costs by eliminating redundancy in testing," Workman said.
A 2005 study published in Health Affairs Journal estimated $77 billion in annual savings from switching to electronic medical records throughout the United States. During the implementation period, such savings were estimated at $42 billion. Those estimates were based on reducing paperwork, storage of physical files and time spent by nurses fetching a patient's history.
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