The Down Side of EMR
Tasks that once took seconds to perform on paper now require multistepped points and clicks through a maze of menus. Checking patients into the office is an odyssey involving scanners and the collection of demographic data — their race, their preferred language, and so much more — required by Medicare to prove that we are achieving “meaningful use” of our EMR. What “meaningful use” means no one knows for sure, but our manual on how to achieve it is 150 pages long…
When the clicks don’t get me what I want, I naughtily handwrite a prescription. I skip ordering certain tests I might want because it takes too much time — I’ll do it next visit. I dreaded the arrival of this season’s flu-shot supply — now there were more orders to input!
Anne Marie Valinoti’s editorial in the WSJ.
This is only news because the systems have been GREATLY oversold. Ask an bookkeeper if it is easier to write up receipt or enter it in a computer system. Or WalMart if easier to write up a receipt or have a computer system (a lot happens before you reach the checkout line – and MUCH work has been done to streamline that step). Any computer system will at BEST be as easy to use as paper. Could WalMart have the supply chain it does with a paper system – no way. Data entry has to happen in both cases (either on paper or on a computer), computers make the data much more usable.
I wonder if the people complaining gave feedback as the system was developed? From experience I can tell you – definitely they did not.
I liked the earlier post about how 90% of patients in one California practice were Albanian. Doctors’ offices need to make vendors install choices that default to “AAA-unknown.”
“As a colleague remarked, it seems as if this is all about taking care of the chart, as opposed to taking care of the patient.”
This seems spot on.
What a waste of time and money.
Ah yes, so keep that terribly inefficient system and just complain about it. Perhaps a little bit of research, maybe even a bit of practice with the system before purchasing it?
The rest of the world is required to train up on their IT platforms.
Are EMRs discussed in medical school?
@MDB,
I couldn’t agree with you more. There are complaints after complaints regarding the innacuracy of EMRs and how “troublesome” it is to get things done in a timely manners with these new technologies…but the truth is that they do make everything easier for both patients and doctors/insurance companies/etc.
Granted. There several factors against the use of EMRs, such as their reliability, accuracy and so forth, but I truly believe their benefits far outweigh their harm.
They make the transfer of patient’s records much eaiser from point A to point B, they facilitate the access to specific information to several parties at the same time, and much more. If people keep making so much emphasis on the negatives of using EMRs then they will never fully understand the good things they bring to the health care system. They are not perfect. Got it. They are not 100% accurate or reliable. Got it. But if used correctly and efficiently, they can facilitate everyone’s job.