Broadband is Cornerstone to Improved Health IT

For millions of Americans who live in rural areas that are far from good hospitals or individuals in underserved communities, broadband access could provide better, faster, and less expensive health care.

The Government Accountability Office recently released a report that focused on "integrated delivery systems" (IDS), which were implemented in a variety of health care settings. These case studies assessed the role of electronic health records (EHR) and other broadband-based technologies. According to the report:

"Some IDSs said that using EHRs supports their patient care strategies such as care coordination, disease management, and use of care protocols by increasing the availability of individual patient and patient population data and by improving communication among providers... Each patient's EHR contains a "dashboard" with information on preventive services to highlight needed services and to facilitate communication among providers so that services and assistance can be requested electronically."

Information that previously existed in paper files can now be transferred digitally to the patient, their physician, or a hospital on the other coast. Vital health information is provided to doctors quickly, and as a result the patient gets better care at a lower cost.

Electronic records can also reduce human error by creating standardized order sets, which have statistical advantages over physician prescribed orders with no guidelines. In a study of Denver Health patients:

"This use of standardized order sets was associated with a 23 percent decrease in intensive care unit length of stay and a 30 percent decrease in hospital length of stay."

Previously underserved communities in rural areas can now also access doctors through new "telehealth" options. Using a videoconferencing line, doctors and patients — sometimes hundreds of miles apart — can have regular check-ins.

Underserved populations would also benefit from a more comprehensive system that takes into account a spectrum of health information, connecting the dots between scattered hospital visits, lab work, and multiple physicians.

For these benefits to reach hard-to-access patients, the US will need a reliable and robust broadband infrastructure on which these systems can grow. These tools have already been implemented in some parts of the country — let's get them implemented everywhere.

Health Care Delivery: Features of Integrated Systems Support Patient Care Strategies and Access to Care, but Systems Face Challenges (GAO)