sinai in the news
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Vice President Biden, Secretary Sebelius lead panel discussion on healthcare at Sinai
/20/2009 Chicago—Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and Dr. David Blumenthal, information technology director for Sebelius visited Mount Sinai yesterday to lead a roundtable discussion on healthcare reform in the United States. Other panel members included faculty from Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Mount Sinai. From Northwestern Memorial: Dr. June McKoy, geriatrician; Dr. David Baker, internist; and Dr. Martha Gulati, cardiologist. From Mount Sinai: Chere Hamilton, ED Nurse; Peter Ingram, CIO; and Dr. Steven Whitman, Director of Sinai Urban Health Institute.
At the event, Biden announced that 1.2 billion dollars from the federal stimulus funds will be used to digitize medical records. According to Chere Hamilton, modernizing medical records into a database system would play a crucial role in the emergency department at Sinai. “When you come to the emergency room, we need your information right away. How do we do that?” said Hamilton. With the digitization of medical records, doctors and nurses can find patient information and medical history with the click of a button. Currently, Hamilton and other ED staff are forced to act as investigators, “putting the pieces of a puzzle together”, as Hamilton puts it, to track a patient’s medical history. The staff has to go so far as look for surgery scars to find clues to a patient record.
Biden also emphasized the importance of health insurance reform, and the need for more preventative care and medicine, something everyone on the panel agreed with.
"We have great sickness care, not great healthcare," said Secretary Sebelius.
Sinai CIO Peter Ingram sees information technology aiding in preventative medicine. "It can remind physicians of the need for preventative health" said Ingram.
Another matter that hit close to home for Sinai was health insurance reform.
"We need to bring healthcare to all our citizens," said Dr. Steven Whitman.
At Sinai, only 7 percent of patients have commercial insurance, 13 percent are uninsured, and 60 percent have Medicaid and 20 percent have Medicare.
About 60 invited guests attended the event held at Sinai Community Institute (SCI), including Illinois Senator Roland Burris, U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky, Attorney General Lisa Madigan and other Sinai doctors and nurses.
For additional information, contact Dianne Hunter, Director of PR and Communications, Sinai Health System, Chicago, IL 60608, 773.257.5228
