Doctors and Hospitals Say Goals on Computerized Records Are Unrealistic

I love technology as much as anyone I know, however this article points out the flaws with the current guidelines for electronic health records (EHR). It also does not point out the very important point that when legislation was written for EHR, it was written such that the software companies have no liability for the glitches in their product. Instead this issue gets added as yet another layer of liability to physicians and hospitals.

Uvealblues

WASHINGTON — In February 2009, as part of legislation to revive the economy, Congress provided tens of billions of dollars to help doctors and hospitals buy equipment to computerize patients’ medical records.

But the eligibility criteria proposed by the Obama administration are so strict and so ambitious that hardly any doctors or hospitals can meet them, not even the most technologically advanced providers likeKaiser Permanente and Intermountain Healthcare.

Doctors and hospital executives, who have expressed their frustration in meetings with White House and Medicare officials, said the issue offered a cautionary tale of what could happen when good intentions meet the reality of America’s fragmented health care system.

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In meetings at the White House, doctors and hospital executives have conveyed the same message: the president’s all-or-nothing approach could discourage efforts to adopt electronic health records because some of the proposed standards are impossibly high and the risk of failure is great. They pleaded with the administration to take a more gradual approach and reward incremental progress.