More on the Debate Over EMRs
This is from an editorial in the Washington Post:
While this sort of reform has popular support, there is little evidence that currently available computerized systems will improve care. It’s the wrong investment to make at this time.
- After the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh added automated prescribing recommendations to a commercial electronic records system, the institution documented a more than threefold increase in the death rate among child patients.
- Another leading system contributed to more than 20 different types of medical errors.
- Studies in U.S. hospitals suggest that these systems can add a half-hour or more to a day for tasks such as electronic ordering
- The false alerts that systems sometimes send can desensitize doctors to legitimate clinical recommendations.
Yet here is a pen and paper doctor whose office mate uses EMRs and who admits EMRs improve efficiency and quality of care.
The more we learn, the worse it sounds.
There are two kinds of articles that you tend to see about EMRs. On the pro side are the articles describing how great these systems are going to be. On the con side are the practical effects of trying to implement them.