Just How Well Do EMRs Work?
To visit the Marshfield Clinic, a longtime innovator in health information technology, is to glimpse medicine's digital future.
A computerized patient record is a continuously updated document that includes the patient's health history, medications, lab tests, treatment guidelines and doctors' and nurses' notes. However, there is no crisp, conclusive cost-benefit arithmetic. Marshfield can point to various measurable savings, but has scant proof they outweigh the millions spent in the past and the $50 million-a-year technology budget. [link]
Also see the post made just a few days ago on NYC's experimental program with EMRs.
Doesn’t save any money????? Don’t you realize this is how the Obama team expects to pay for health reform.
Bret, there is going to be a painful transition from rhetoric to reality in the Obama adminisrtation.
Hey, it’s not just Obama. Throw in Newt Gingrich, John McCain and a whole slew of similarly confused people on the right.
There is a reason for all this dewy-eyed enamor of EMRs. It sounds like you can cut health care costs without anyone giving anything up.
All gain. No pain.
[…] as pointed out here, the real question is whether the investment in health IT is cost effective. As previously reported […]