Hospitals and Ebola

It seems like you can’t turn your head anywhere without hearing something about Ebola these days. I heard one TV station in Dallas being called the Ebola news. It’s probably pretty accurate considering it’s been the epicenter of the news coverage. Although, the coverage has seemed to be a little all over the place. In fact, the coverage for Ebola has hit so many places, that I’ve basically avoided almost all of the coverage. I’ve only gotten a little bit of coverage from the sources that I ready regularly. I guess I’ve also seen a few headlines on social media.

With that said, I have dug a little deeper on what’s happened with the EHR and Ebola discussions. Although, that story seems to be even more convoluted and misunderstood than the larger Ebola story. If you want something really valuable (notice the sarcasm font), check out this just released joint statement from the AMA, AHA, and ANA that basically says “We’re working together on it.” If I were a member of any of these organizations, I’d have to consider quitting.

Here’s my short synopsis on what we should know about Ebola:

1. Be thoughtful in how you avoid any communicable disease (Ebola included). That doesn’t mean you have to lock yourself in your house and never go out.
2. We need to get Ebola under control in Africa. If we don’t, then we could have Ebola become a real issue in the US.
3. EHR software can help healthcare professionals identify and track Ebola if configured properly.

There are a number of groups and organizations trying to come together to spread the EHR best practices when it comes to Ebola. I’ll be interested to hear what they find.

Those are my general thoughts on what’s happening. As I said, I’m not an all encompassing expert on the topic. Let’s all share what we know and what we’re doing in the comments.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

1 Comment

  • I’m curious as to whether any EMRs have the ability to brightly flag a patient as having something like EBOLA while the patient is sick so that anyone dealing with the patient who sees the records can’t miss it. Same thing for a patient suspected of any highly communicable disease – say a triage nurse in ER believes it possible, and turns on the Flag to try and ensure that others dealing with the patient exercise proper precaution and needed follow-up.

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