A recent Becker’s Hospital Review article, “The most dangerous trends in healthcare today,” is frightening—not because of what 52 healthcare leaders said, but because of what they didn’t say. They accept our broken healthcare system as inevitable.
That’s unacceptable. Healthcare is in crisis—yet we’re treating symptoms, not fixing the causes. The costs are staggering.
- Providers can’t coordinate care, are wasting $billions annually, and losing money.
- Hospitals are cutting staff, dropping services, even closing to reduce losses—hurting their communities.
- Providers are quitting from burnout, causing extensive appointment delays.
- Patient care is often error-ridden, unnecessarily expensive.
- Patients can’t afford escalating deductibles, insurance.
- Patients, providers are frustrated; have little time to talk.
- Employers, government can’t afford escalating healthcare costs.
We need to fix the underlying causes, not merely treat symptoms.
Three Problems We Must Fix
1. Providers do not have complete patient information.
Doctors often treat patients without access to their complete medical records. Result: medical errors that annually kill hundreds of thousands, seriously harm another million, and unnecessary visits, tests, procedures that waste hundreds of billions of dollars!
We’ve tolerated this for more than 20 years. It must stop.
2. Providers spend too much time entering data, chasing information.
Care providers spend hours entering data and hunting for records from other providers. Results: less time with patients, longer waits, higher costs.
3. We’ve accepted this broken system as normal.
Healthcare managers, providers, employers, insurers, government agencies —even patients—have adapted to today’s system that doesn’t work.
Instead of fixing these problems, we’re adding to them, eg., adding AI to diagnose illnesses from a patient’s incomplete records, will simply make bad decisions faster, not better!
MedKaz® Is the Answer
MedKaz puts the patient—not the provider—in control. (Full disclosure: we developed it.)
MedKaz assembles searchable PDF copies of a patient’s records from all his providers—his Lifetime Health Record, plus the application to manage them, on a secure, distinct portable USB drive the patient carries and gives to any provider, anywhere. It works with all EHR systems, even during power and internet outages. The provider uses it as a source of information; he continues to enter his notes in his EHR system.
It enables providers to streamline their workflow. When they log on:
- A Health Summary instantly appears, saving 3–6 minutes understanding the patient’s past and current issues. It also lists all recent encounters.
- The complete record is searchable, empowering the provider to coordinate care, avoid costly mistakes and unnecessary treatment, and save another 10 minutes he can spend talking with his patient.
- After each encounter, the encounter records are automatically uploaded to the MedKaz Server, which makes them searchable and emails the patient and designated contacts to download them.
- Within 24 hours, the MedKaz Server pushes the encounter notes to the patient’s other providers, enabling them to catch errors or unnecessary care and notify the provider before they harm the patient or waste money.
The Bottom Line
With MedKaz, we can easily reverse today’s crises today.
- Providers can immediately coordinate care, materially reduce costs.
- Providers can spend more time treating patients, less time chasing records.
- Patients can manage their care, spend less time waiting for appointments.
- Providers and patients have more time to talk.
We know what’s broken. We know how to fix it. It’s time to move.
- Patients: get your MedKaz, assemble your records.
- Providers: promote MedKaz adoption, start with a pilot study.
- Employers: offer MedKaz as a wellness benefit, incentivize provider usage.
- Government: promote, subsidize MedKaz adoption; penalize failure to adopt (like the HITECH ACT of 2009 did).
