[mzwartbol]

"most patients don’t call, don’t get the follow-up they need, get sicker, and return to the emergency room which strains hospital and health insurer resources"

I suppose this is a USA only problem? In europe pts get an appointment on discharge. Of the people who fail to show (~5-10%) get called which leads to a fail to show of ~1%. Of this group a small percentage has relevant pathology and these pts. are of the doctor avoidant type mostly low social-economic class.

I would like to see some numbers to support their claims. Of course I welcome the idea of improving healthcare information systems. They are notoriously slow, inefficient, insecure and outdated. Only good one I've worked with is EZIS. I don't know why change is so slow but it probably has something o do with money and fear of change and all the problems which come with it.

I've never used an information system which made it easy to look in to stored data and find ways to improve health practice. Analysis software for healthcare is/would/will be a big thing I hope.

Sorry for bad english.

[ThomPete]

Yes it's very much a US problem but not isolated to that. Even in the superior one payer healthcare systems many mistakes are made because people don't follow up & through.