StorCard

Patient Centered Solutions - Saving Lives and Improving Quality Care

Health and healthcare is the biggest public policy challenge in America today with an information-intensive environment requiring patient-centered approaches to solving problems Patient hand-offs are the weak link in medical-information continuity. Currently, patient care can be disrupted by the incompatibility of information technology in different physicians' offices and hospitals. In each care setting, patients and physicians are frustrated by reliance on fax machines, telephones, and patient memory to reassemble information that has already been collected at least once before. This system lends itself not only to inaccuracies, but is dangerous for patients, wasteful, and expensive. Consider this:

• "Despite spending $150 million in IT a year, we still have a problem with hand-offs." Dr. Tonya Hongsermeier, corporate manager of clinical decision support and knowledge management at Partners HealthCare System Inc. in Boston
• "As many as 98,000 preventable hospital deaths occur each year due to medical errors. Many of the causes of death were preventable, such as communication breakdowns and diagnostic delays" - Institute of Medicine

Exchanging data as personal and important as health care information should be secure and easy, such that the patient is empowered and can ensure information is available with the patient at the time services are provided. But today this is not the case. A recent survey of nearly 1,300 family physicians who use electronic health records in their practices found that 264 different software vendors were used and none of the 264 products currently shares data with any of the other products. Often physicians have to rely on what the patient remembers and existing vitals at the time of the visit. In some instances, errors in diagnosis without complete knowledge of patient history can be fatal.

The technology required to carry all necessary medical data is a reality and requires simple innovative approaches that work with and within the existing card form-factor while protecting your identity and maintaining privacy.

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