Electronic Health Records (EHR) support improved information for Healthcare markets

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Keith Kerr, Managing Director of the Project, Program, & Portfolio Practice at Robbins-Gioia, LLC.

Your Econ 101 class will tell you that information is the key to well-functioning and competitive markets for goods and services. However, some markets “clear” more quickly than others. Credit markets, for example, tend adjust aggregate supply and demand so they are seen as being relatively efficient. The price in some markets, often for labor and services, tends to be a bit more “sticky,” and the markets less efficient. Healthcare is an obvious example of a marketplace where supply does not instantaneously adjust with demand though fluctuations in price. The causes of price stickiness is a rich area of discussion (another discussion is the appropriate role of government to improve market conditions). That said, there can be a general agreement that more complete knowledge makes for a more efficient marketplace, and that reduced cost of information improves knowledge acquisition. However, the information must be good, valid data that comes from authoritative and reliable sources.

At the Government Health IT Conference in Washington, ONC director Farzad Mostashari gave the closing keynote address spoke about the need for a better marketplace with the use of Electronic Health Records. Certainly the more ubiquitous use of Electronic Health Records technologies can provide consumers of all types with better information to make purchasing decisions. Of course, technology alone won’t create trusted information. The EHR is one leg of the stool, equally important to a successful EHR project is the integration of improved workflow and all the people that interact with the ‘system’: The patient, doctors, nurses, administration, payers, labs, pharmacy, etc. Misleading information in the marketplace leads to poor decisions just as much as the lack of information. For EHRs then, we need common process that provides data that can be aggregated and used for comparisons and informed decision making. Businesses and other organizations understand the need for common process, and I suspect that holds true for the macro-marketplace. I suspect we will all need to practice working in this remodeled marketplace, and be prepared to rework and adjust as we go.