http://ozarkspub.vo.llnwd.net/o37/KSMU/audio/mp3/mohealthne_1222.mp3
Governor Blunt visited Springfield this week to talk about the importance of technology in monitoring an individual's health.
Governor Matt Blunt was in Springfield Tuesday to discuss the importance of technology to healhcare in general and to the proposed Missouri Healthnet in particular.
Missouri Healthnet is the name of the proposed program from the governor that would replace Medicaid, which is scheduled to expire next year.
Blunt told reporters during his stop at Oxford Healthcare it's a shame that businesses that take care of your car have better digital record-keeping than many hospitals.
"Our bodies deserve the same level of attention and information as our cars have, and we want to ensure that that happens. That's why things like electronic health records are so powerful. We want to try to expand their use across the state both within the private sector and the public sector."
Some people have expressed concerns about the potential for a loss of privacy once medical records are digital and available for sharing between healthcare facilities across the country. But supporters of integrating technology in healthcare point out that there's already a level of trust in electronic transactions since so many people use debit and credit cards routinely.
The Senate Republican Floor Leader Charlie Shields was with Blunt in Springfield Tuesday. He works for a managed care company and is the lead sponsor of the bill that would establish and electronic-based alternative to Medicaid.
With electronic medical devices beeping in the background, Shields discussed ways technology can make patients safer.
"Many of us involved in healthcare know the story of the elderly person who comes and sees their primary care physician and has the ziplock bag full of prescriptions. There may be 12 bottle of pills in there and there may be 3 of those that interact with each other and they wonder why they don't feel good. Those drugs may have been provided by multiple providers that had no idea that person was on another prescription, and with our technology every we can understand and every provider can go to look at the database and find out what their patient's on."
Missouri lawmakers are on their annual spring break this week. It's the mid-point in the legislative session. Both republicans and democrats say they hope there's time left to work on a new state healthcare program to replace Medicaid.