EHRs May Break the Bank in San Francisco
The San Francisco Department of Public Health says it is ahead of the curve in rolling out databases that keep tabs on tens of thousands of patients across a citywide network of clinics and hospitals. The rollout is needed not just to make a local form of “universal health care” work, but also to meet a 2014 deadline under national health reform…
An incomplete survey of technology costs borne by the clinics themselves this year reveals spending of at least $15 million in addition to what was budgeted for the whole program, adding at least 8.5 percent to the total cost. But that sum is likely millions higher, since eight clinics could not or would not say how much they spent or were planning to spend integrating their patient records…
One already financially stressed clinic, Lyon-Martin Health Services in Hayes Valley, which caters to the gay, lesbian and transgender communities, said buying a new electronic records system might break the bank.
Full post by Angela Hart at The Health Care Blog.
Obama Care is going to be a disaster.
Many physician practices will find they must invest in systems that don’t produce a benefit. Private sector firms often do the same. However, the government doesn’t mandate the features requried to be included in Microsoft Office in the same way it does for health IT systems.
Why oh why are they paying for an EHR when there are at least two free cloud based solutions that also qualify for meaningful use? Being cloud based also could potentially solve the problem of sharing data between sites.
The real reason for EHRs? Keeping “tabs” on the tens of thousands of patients. What other reason is there given that there is almost no evidence that they will improve health, especially given that these are primary care clinics?