Only a minority of physician practices use electronic records.
This is becoming a decisive factor when recruiting newly graduated doctors, who are groomed on digital systems in academic medical centers, and raised on the Internet.
A survey of Vanderbilt medical students found that 80 percent, when placed in environments of lower health IT utilization, reported “feeling less able to practice safe patient care, to utilize evidence at the point of care, to work efficiently, to share and communicate information, and to work effectively within the local system.”
Perhaps this can be an impetus to resolve the inertia some practices face when deciding whether or not to adopt electronic record systems.
Related posts:
- Op-ed: Why doctors still balk at electronic medical records
- How to fund electronic medical records wisely
- Most hospitals still use paper records, and why money alone won’t solve the electronic medical record problem
- Poll: Will electronic medical records really save money?
- Will the benefits of digital medical records only be seen in large, integrated health systems?
- Funding electronic medical records and bailing out the Big Three automakers
- Do electronic medical records really reduce malpractice risk?
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{ 1 comment }
Even as a paramedic, I hate writing paper charts. They are inefficient, occasionally illegible, and more likely to be incomplete. The chart does not seem to follow the patient in the hospital.
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