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Article: A life-saving role: health care information systems are essential medicine.
- Article from:
- Industrial Engineer
- Article date:
- February 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Institute of Industrial Engineers, Inc. (IIE). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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SPENDING ON HEALTH CARE IN THE UNITED STATES continues to grow at the rate of more than 7 percent per year, expecting to reach $2.8 trillion by 2011. Escalating health care costs are impeding U.S. industry's ability to compete globally. As an example, according to a November article in USA Today, General Motors Corp. (GM) spent $4.5 billion on health care in 2002. The cost to the consumer was $535 on each of the several million vehicles that GM sold that year. The lack of interoperability of health care information is a major contributor to this cost. Therefore, the desire for further extensions of health care coverage by the industry in general needs to be accompanied by ...