- In a Medscape poll of more than 250 clinicians, more physicians said that electronic health record (EHR) systems have decreased quality of care (44%) in their primary workplace than increased it (40%).
- The poll also indicated that few physicians or nurses were involved in the decision of which EHR to use in their primary workplace.
- When asked what aspects of EHRs increased quality of care, the top answer among physicians was the ability to locate and review patient information more easily (59%), followed by the ability to electronically subscribe (49%), and portability/access to patient records by all members of the care team (44%).
- Physicians’ top answer was to make the systems more intuitive/user-friendly (44%), followed by allowing greater interoperability and record sharing (30%). Nurses/APRNs would most like to see more interoperability and better record sharing (33%), followed by making the systems more user-friendly (30%).
Apple, Microsoft, Google the medical industry needs your hep…desperately! THE U.S. GOVERNMENT CLAIMED that turning American medical charts into electronic records would make health care better, safer, and cheaper. Ten years and $36 billion later, the system is an unholy mess. Inside a digital revolution gone wrong.
It has been nearly a decade since the American Recovery, and Reinvestment Act set aside $35 billion to encourage physicians to use electronic health record (EHR) systems. The swamp that has followed is hurting us all and costing our healthcare system money it can ill afford.
Given that smartphone sales are in the toilet and PC sales are falling the opportunity for a user, and patient-friendly EHR is enormous. Imagine an EHR that is easy to use for both HCP’s and patients.
HCP want an easy user interface while patients want to ensure that their EHR’s are shareable among different doctors. Surely Jeff Bezos or Tim Cook can muster the momentum to challenge the current EHR failures like AthenaHealth.
After President Barack Obama signed a law to accelerate the digitization of medical records—with the federal government, so far, sinking $36 billion into the effort—America has little to show for its investment. Instead of reducing costs, many say EHRs, which were originally optimized for billing rather than for patient care, have instead made it easier to engage in “upcoding” or bill inflation (though some say the systems also make such fraud easier to catch).
Apple has billions of dollars in cash laying around, surely they could take some of that money and help the industry through this huge
