Just for the record, Electronic Medical Records (EMR) in America are an expensive, boat anchors that over promises and under delivers at this point in history and for the near future! The interfaces are cumbersome and non-intuitive. The three biggest benefits to EMRs would be a high level of effective networking, micro and macro report writing of databases within the record(s), and flagging of not only abnormal testing but, a usable format for reminders set at intervals for test and appointments that are due. Most of the EMR programs do one or two of the three fairly well. This isnt just about old doctors not wanting to embrace technology. We were promised beneficial EMRs and what we have currently are little more than time consuming, word processors, with rigid (and sometimes inaccurate) coding protocols built in. The programming firms have little to no accountability for their expensive, and highly profitable programs that do NOT meet federal criteria for meaningful use. What is worse is that every EMR in America is on a different platform, so there is no easy comparison between programs before you buy them. And after investing thousand of hours with data entry it is difficult and costly to jump ship and change to a new program. Ultimately, American patients are paying to have this expensive programming developed. It is directing a large chunk of healthcare dollars away from patient care and into companies like Cerner Corporation, Epic Company , Allscripts, NextGen Corporation and McKesson Corporation, each of which takes in 1/2 to 2-1/2 BILLION DOLLARS of annual revenue. Physicians now spend twice to three times as much time entering data into their computer than with face to face patient care. We now have health care markers and and targets to get non-reduced reimbursement, but the process is so contrived that it interferes with basic human interaction and anything that falls outside of the imposed healthcare markers/ targets (which is a lot). These healthcare markers and targets are used by insurance companies to justify reduced reimbursement to physicians, and one of the problems with this is that they are often out of date. So in order to not be financially penalized physicians have to practice out of date medicine or fraudulently document in the EMR. So for the record I embrace and support functional and efficient technology in healthcare and other areas. The technology that we have AT THIS TIME in America, in the form of electronic medical records (and our commercial insurance bureaucracy for that matter) is hindering effective healthcare delivery, and to this I reluctantly conform.
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 14:33:07 +0000