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AFSCME Enters the Policy Arena for Healthcare Information Technology

Despite having such disparate champions as Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and former Rep. Newt Gingrich, implementation of healthcare information technology (HCIT) is far from widespread or uniform at healthcare facilities throughout the United States.

Because of the potential for HCIT to lower healthcare costs and improve quality, there is a major push at the federal level to set national standards and goals for these technologies. The Bush Administration has appointed David Brailer as point person for HCIT, and several HCIT-related bills have been introduced in Congress.

One of the first hurdles to widespread HCIT adoption will be establishing standards that allow systems at one facility to "talk" with another. This is a major concern as U.S. hospitals are characterized by piecemeal HCIT systems they installed when the field was in its infancy.

AFSCME has been named to the Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP), which is charged with helping to establish standards and policies that will lay the foundation for national adoption of these technologies. Though this panel is heavily weighted with industry and vendor representatives, AFSCME plans to work actively to ensure that both labor/workplace and consumer issues are considered when establishing these policies.

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