Comments on: Are poor products to blame for the slow adoption of EMRs? http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2008/12/are-poor-products-to-blame-for-slow.html medical blog Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:15:05 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Anonymous http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2008/12/are-poor-products-to-blame-for-slow.html/comment-page-1#comment-88692 Anonymous Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:39:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/kevinmd/2008/12/are-poor-products-to-blame-for-the-slow-adoption-of-emrs.html#comment-88692 Anon 2:19 AM:<br/>I agree completely.<br/>My office has used an emr since 2004, and although good in many ways, I become nauseated when emrs are touted as the panacea for all that ails medicine. A lot of this malarkey is pushed by the makers of the software themselves. Politicians take the bait, and there are more than a few plicy wonk physicians at the AMA and AAFP, among other organizations, that drink th ekool aid as well.<br/>In our 3 person practice, the emr cost us about 12,000. Not too bad. Except my primary care office cannot delegate an employee to scan files in as this is too expensive. So we are not completely paperless, we cannot afford to be.<br/><br/>By the way, want to know how much money insurance companies have offered to offset the cost of the emr? A big fat zero. Anon 2:19 AM:
I agree completely.
My office has used an emr since 2004, and although good in many ways, I become nauseated when emrs are touted as the panacea for all that ails medicine. A lot of this malarkey is pushed by the makers of the software themselves. Politicians take the bait, and there are more than a few plicy wonk physicians at the AMA and AAFP, among other organizations, that drink th ekool aid as well.
In our 3 person practice, the emr cost us about 12,000. Not too bad. Except my primary care office cannot delegate an employee to scan files in as this is too expensive. So we are not completely paperless, we cannot afford to be.

By the way, want to know how much money insurance companies have offered to offset the cost of the emr? A big fat zero.

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2008/12/are-poor-products-to-blame-for-slow.html/comment-page-1#comment-88689 Anonymous Tue, 16 Dec 2008 07:19:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/kevinmd/2008/12/are-poor-products-to-blame-for-the-slow-adoption-of-emrs.html#comment-88689 Easy to say when it's not your money. Why should one have to change the way one practices to adopt an EMR system, and pay for the privilege? If it's not fitting into the practice, then it's bad software.<br/>The role of anyone who designs software is to fit their product to the application, not make the application fit their product. EMRs are the worst at completely failing to serve the needs of physicians; rather, they exist for insurance companies, medicare, and drug companies, making it cheaper for them to bill, and track prescription patterns. Nice for them, but no help to the physician, who usually sees no gain in productivity on his end, with considerable expense incurred. Easy to say when it’s not your money. Why should one have to change the way one practices to adopt an EMR system, and pay for the privilege? If it’s not fitting into the practice, then it’s bad software.
The role of anyone who designs software is to fit their product to the application, not make the application fit their product. EMRs are the worst at completely failing to serve the needs of physicians; rather, they exist for insurance companies, medicare, and drug companies, making it cheaper for them to bill, and track prescription patterns. Nice for them, but no help to the physician, who usually sees no gain in productivity on his end, with considerable expense incurred.

]]> By: The Medical Quack http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2008/12/are-poor-products-to-blame-for-slow.html/comment-page-1#comment-88671 The Medical Quack Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:47:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/kevinmd/2008/12/are-poor-products-to-blame-for-the-slow-adoption-of-emrs.html#comment-88671 From the geek side of things, there are items that companies can start working on to make the user interface easier. It is called the Common User Interface that could be added and connected to most EMR/EHR systems, so that any clinician would see the same/similar screens at any hospital and any physician's office.<br/><br/>Several developers have downloaded and are working with it. It is free code from Microsoft that anyone can use to develop. Right now with being on staff let's say at 2 hospitals using different systems, well you have 2 systems to learn, too much in my opinion. Thus software companies that work to bring this user interface in are working as partners to make healthcare and records for physicians easier, so healthcare and not data input are the focus.<br/><br/>I wrote an EMR a few years ago and now I consult and being familiar from the consulting side of several EMRs is a job too, so we feel the pain as well, if you will:)<br/><br/>Less complicated screens for data input and viewing along with some dynamic Silverlight visuals can sure help tremendously. Overload of information is not anywhere near coming to an end,so some better filters and visuals I'm sure would be a welcome change for anyone in healthcare as software is becoming a nightmare for all in areas even outside of healthcare too for that matter.<br/><br/>I have done a multitude of posts about the Common User Interface and here's one link you can view for yourself. It's not bad and really is very dynamic and hopefully more software companies can envision the same and we can work towards better systems for medical records. This would not require a whole new system that works behind the scenes, just the user screens so it all operates and looks the same/similar. <br/><br/>http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/11/common-user-interface-update-and-walk.html<br/><br/>I ran around with the predecessor to this at HIMMS this year on my tablet pc and it was well received by all, so the sooner a project like this can get underway, I think it would do wonders to boost the cause. From the geek side of things, there are items that companies can start working on to make the user interface easier. It is called the Common User Interface that could be added and connected to most EMR/EHR systems, so that any clinician would see the same/similar screens at any hospital and any physician’s office.

Several developers have downloaded and are working with it. It is free code from Microsoft that anyone can use to develop. Right now with being on staff let’s say at 2 hospitals using different systems, well you have 2 systems to learn, too much in my opinion. Thus software companies that work to bring this user interface in are working as partners to make healthcare and records for physicians easier, so healthcare and not data input are the focus.

I wrote an EMR a few years ago and now I consult and being familiar from the consulting side of several EMRs is a job too, so we feel the pain as well, if you will:)

Less complicated screens for data input and viewing along with some dynamic Silverlight visuals can sure help tremendously. Overload of information is not anywhere near coming to an end,so some better filters and visuals I’m sure would be a welcome change for anyone in healthcare as software is becoming a nightmare for all in areas even outside of healthcare too for that matter.

I have done a multitude of posts about the Common User Interface and here’s one link you can view for yourself. It’s not bad and really is very dynamic and hopefully more software companies can envision the same and we can work towards better systems for medical records. This would not require a whole new system that works behind the scenes, just the user screens so it all operates and looks the same/similar.

http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/11/common-user-interface-update-and-walk.html

I ran around with the predecessor to this at HIMMS this year on my tablet pc and it was well received by all, so the sooner a project like this can get underway, I think it would do wonders to boost the cause.

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