{"id":12167,"date":"2012-05-02T14:28:25","date_gmt":"2012-05-02T18:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pmedicine.org\/epatients\/?p=12167"},"modified":"2012-05-06T16:49:19","modified_gmt":"2012-05-06T20:49:19","slug":"american-hospital-association-declares-war-on-patient-empowerment-please-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/2012\/05\/american-hospital-association-declares-war-on-patient-empowerment-please-act.html","title":{"rendered":"American Hospital Association declares war on patient empowerment. Please act."},"content":{"rendered":"

[Reminder: The place to register an official comment to the government is\u00a0this page<\/a>\u00a0on Regulations.gov. Monday May 7 is the last day.]
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New, 11pm ET on May 2: See Regina Holliday’s addition at bottom.<\/em><\/p>\n

Evening addition: <\/em>In a comment below, SPM policy chair David Harlow notes that (perhaps in addition to what you do below), to have your comments formally <\/em>registered, you should submit them on the official Regulations.gov response page<\/a>.
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The headline above is unusually strong wording, but emails and blogs have been ablaze today with outrage at the comment letter submitted Monday by the American Hospital Association regarding the proposed regulations for Meaningful Use Stage 2. The AHA has effectively said it is neither interested in, nor capable of, giving families the information they need to care for the sick after hospitalization.<\/p>\n

And they say Federal rules should support their position. This would utterly disempower the efforts of patients and families to engage responsibly in their families’ care.<\/p>\n

We must speak up. This is a call to action.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the AHA has unwittingly\u00a0revealed why American hospitals are inept at discharge planning: they don’t have <\/em>a grip on\u00a0this vital information. We already know that 20% of Medicare patients return to the hospital within a month (NEJM 2009<\/a>). The industry describes this with the delightful term “bounceback.” Families call it upsetting, distressing, heartbreaking.<\/p>\n

The issue at hand:<\/strong> current regulations for Meaningful Use Stage 1 (already in force) require that we be given our records within four days, but now the AHA says that’s impossible (“not feasible,” in their words) and they want thirty days. \u00a0<\/em><\/strong>A month. \u00a0<\/em>(The iHealthBeat article<\/a> links to the AHA’s 68 page letter (PDF<\/a>).)<\/p>\n

Here’s what that means, specifically: when you or a relative is discharged from the hospital, instead of giving you your information promptly – to inform and empower good home care – they want to be allowed to spend that whole month gathering <\/em>the information that might let you prevent <\/em>readmission.<\/p>\n

Here are two leading organizations’ posts:<\/p>\n