Real Health Care Reform

This week Union Mission's J. C. Lewis Health Center is launching the use of electronic medical records with Memorial Health University Medical Center. This is part of an initiative by the Chatham County Safety Net Planning Council and will eventually include all of the providers of health care for the uninsured and underinsured in the County.

This means that when a patient is seen in the emergency room and then shows up at the Lewis Center, we don't have to run all of the same tests that the hospital did. We can share treatment plans. It makes everything more efficient and less costly. Now this is an example of real health care reform!

And it happens at the local level when individuals and institutions overcome their turf protection and egos and do what is best for the community. And for themselves because as the old adage goes "united we stand, divided we fall."

That is not to say that there isn't room for desent. There certainly has been some robust conversations in this effort. And, like everything else, it has taken longer than it should. But now it is being accomplished.

Not too long ago I wrote about a sick homeless woman who lived her life by going to the ICU waiting room at Memorial and pretending that she was part of someone's family. She would bath in the bathroom and eat what people threw away.

Of course, she was often sick and would merely take the elevator down to the emergency room where she would check in and get a real meal. And she is one of millions who do this and this is one of the reasons health care cost is out of control.

Today she is housed at Union Mission's Dutch Town campus, is healthy and is no longer a burden. The reason is because of efforts that this. And all of us are better because of it.

This is real health care reform!