Electronic records are a recent theme here. #1 Dinosaur give his take in a Medscape piece (registration required), calling the current crop of EMRs nor ready for widespread use:
The EMRs promise of a “paperless” office is as distant as ever. It’s much easier to keep my efficient, time-tested paper charts than lay out thousands of dollars for hardware and software that aren’t going to save time or money, or make a single substantive difference in the care that I deliver.It’s not that this dinosaur doesn’t appreciate the advantages of living in a computerized world. However, after a careful evaluation of the present-day pros and cons of EMRs, I still say, “Make mine paper.”
Doctors are not technology-adverse. But going digital has to be done with the right programs, and the current generation of EMRs aren’t quite there yet.
