The woes of the Big Three have been national news for a while now, and despite DiamlerChrysler's recent increase in buzz and market share they're not out of the woods either. What's dragging GM, Ford, and DCX down, especially with GM and Ford thriving in overseas markets and all three collectively controlling nearly half of the lucrative North American market?
Among other things the rising price of healthcare for their current and retired employees, particularly the cost of prescription drugs. The Henry Ford Health System and Health Alliance Plan's E-Prescribe system is interesting enough on its own because, as I alluded to in my previous post, the automation of mundane tasks frees-up resources so that healthcare professionals can engage in more esoteric - and arguably more important - types of work.
As I heard and read more and more in the local media about the importance of E-Prescribe to the automobile industry, it began to dawn on me that there's an even more important synergistic effect that should be considered. It's been said that the American automobile industry is linked in one way or another to one out of every six jobs in the United States. That's roughly 17% of the entire U.S. economy. All things considered that makes the Henry Ford Health System's E-Prescribe program much more than a local success story of healthcare process improvement through automation; it makes it a model for lowering healthcare costs and expanding coverage worthy of national study.
Electronic prescriptions paid big dividends for Detroit hospitals
WWJ Newsradio 950, 2.23.2006 (BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT)
MATT ROUSH reporting:
With the Great Lakes IT report, I'm Matt Roush, technology editor, WWJ Newsradio 950.
A year ago Henry Ford Health System and Health Alliance Plan launched an electronic prescribing initiative at the request of the Big Three automakers. A year later the online e-prescribing system has hit the 500,000 prescription mark and there have been big payoffs. More than 80,000 of the prescriptions were changed or canceled due to drug interaction alerts and messages alerted doctors to more than 6,000 potential allergic reactions.
Also, more than 50,000 prescriptions were changed to increase the use of generic drugs; that will save more than $3 million a year in healthcare costs. The e-prescribing system started with a 60-doctor pilot, it's now in use with 300 primary care doctors at 24 Henry Ford Medical Centers. All doctors at Henry Ford will be using e-prescribing by the end of the year.
With the Great Lakes IT report, I'm Matt Roush, technology editor, WWJ Newsradio 950.