More Bad news on EHRs
Despite the widely held assumption that having computer access to patients’ test results will reduce testing, a new study shows that doctors who have such access to tests in the ambulatory care setting are more likely to order imaging and lab tests…
McCormick and his colleagues found that point-of-care electronic access to electronic imaging results, sometimes through an electronic health record, was associated with a 40-70 percent greater likelihood of an imaging test being ordered. Physicians without such access ordered imaging in 12.9 percent of visits, while physicians with access ordered imaging in 18.0 percent of visits.
View full study on the cost of adopting health information technology in Health Affairs.
Apparently when doctors who can order and view a diagnostic tests with a few keystrokes, they feel less responsible for the money, and inconvenience of the tests they order. This sounds logical. A similar phenomenon was discovered by Amy Finkelstein about electronic toll booths. When people can fly through a toll booth without having to dig for money, they are less price-sensitive to paying tolls.
I think this is actually quite funny.
In many cases, Medicare and Medicaid will ultimately be responsible for a good portion of those ordered images and lab tests, whether they were really necessary or unnecessary.