EMR exuberance

First of all, this is a really bad analogy. If you worked for a hospital, like pilots work for airlines, then yes they are making investments in systems that are saving lives and reducing medical errors that SO many Doctors seem to make today. I myself choose to have my entire family see physicians that use EMR systems to track our health. I myself, have 2 chronic illness’s that where never given the attention they needed since those physicians were buried in paper that was not reportable. My presciptions used to take as long as a week, now a couple of minutes.

To the patients that wish to use Doctors that are in the ice age of technology: WOULD YOU USE A BANK THAT KEEP TRACK OF ALL OF YOUR MONEY IN A PAPER LEDGER AVAILABLE AT ONLY ONE BRANCH? – I THINK I KNOW THE ANSWER.

EMR’S HAVE BECOME AFFORDABLE (I AM NOT A DOCTOR AND I CAN AFFORD ONE!).

My physicians uses Misys and I know they just came out with a new system that is even less expensive than the one my Doctor uses. Less than $20K for one Doctor. Small price to pay to save a few lives and give better patient care.

Not to mention better physician reimbursement!

My presciptions used to take as long as a week, now a couple of minutes.

Now that’s a really bad analogy. (I stand by my metaphor – its major meaning was to demonstrate the political marginalization of clinicians. It seems the concept of clinicians exerting themselves politically really firghtens some.)

ePrescribing fulfillment and electronic medical records/clinical decision support systems/CPOE are quite different in scope, complexity, and nature of the deliverable.

True, computers were used to reach the moon. However, the deliverable was very concrete – a rocket to do so.

Clinical IT is a very un-concrete entity, however, an amorphous, poorly-defined series of ever-changing products trying to automate the clinical environment.

The true nature of clinical settings and the major fault in the management model for healthcare IT is captured quite pithily in the article “Hiding in Plain Sight: What Koppel et al. tell us about Healthcare IT” (Nemeth & Cook, Journal of Biomedical Informatics 2005;38:262-263):

On the surface, healthcare work seems to flow smoothly. That is because the clinicians who provide healthcare service make it so. Just beneath the apparently smooth-running operations is a complex, poorly bounded, conflicted, highly variable, uncertain, and high-tempo work domain. The technical work that clinicians perform resolves these complex and conflicting elements into a productive work domain. Occasional visitors to this setting see the smooth surface that clinicians have created and remain unaware of the conflicts that lie beneath it. The technical work that clinicians perform is hiding in plain sight. Those who know how to do research in this domain can see through the smooth surface and understand its complex and challenging reality. Occasional visitors cannot fathom this demanding work, much less create IT systems to support it.

My comment on prescriptions was not a all an analogy. It was simply a fact that came out of our physician using an EMR system. They are able to better communicate internally and short cut the long process’s of “sticky notes”. It’s important to me for my family to have the best care possible. I believe that the technology has been around long enough to prove it’s keep and success. All three of our families physcian groups have EMR and rave: Internal, our OB, and our Pediatrician. Ironically, they all have the same system. Must be something good about that Misys system!