Boulder Community Health Vice President and Chief Information Officer Michael
Jefferies et al. urge lawmakers to pass information technology policies
that will help improve the health care system and lower costs for patients.
Read their
op-ed published in today's Daily Camera newspaper and published below.
Daily Camera: Michael Jefferies, et al.: Information technology key to
health care transformation
POSTED: 10/11/2017 07:10:10 PM MDT
Information technology drives improved quality, lower costs, and higher
productivity across almost every industry. Health care is no exception.
Information technology, unlike most other political topics, garners widespread
bipartisan support, yet legislative action lags the fast-growing opportunities
for information technology to improve our health care system.
Last week was National Health IT week, so this is a great time to reflect
on how we can support policies and legislation that enable providers to
adopt health information technology. Key areas requiring action include:
• Growing and improving the Colorado network infrastructure for digital
access to health-care information.
• Expanding reimbursement for electronic tele-health that extends
access to health care for less mobile and rural citizens.
• Requiring electronic health record conformance with standards that
allow providers to seamlessly exchange patient records.
• Funding cyber-security support for providers to protect confidential
patient information.
Before the next election, the Colorado Heath Information Management Systems
Society (CHIMSS) invites you to visit
colorado.himsschapter.org where you can learn more about opportunities to improve our health-care
system through health-care information technology.
Michael Jefferies
chief information officer, Boulder Community Health
Louisville
Jeffrey Pelot
chief information officer, Denver Health
Westminster
Patrick Guffey
president, CHIMSS
Denver
C.T. Lin
chief medical information officer, UC Health
Denver
Sharon Kirby
chief nursing informatics officer, Centura Health
Centennial