Electronic Medical Records 2017: Science Ignored, Opportunity Lost

By KENNETH BARTHOLOMEW, MD
My big brother Bill, may he rest in peace, taught me a valuable lesson four decades ago. We were gearing up for an extended Alaskan wilderness trip and were having trouble with a piece of equipment. When we finally rigged up a solution, I said “that was harder than it should have been” and he quipped in his wry monotone delivery, “There are no hard jobs, only the wrong tools.”
That lesson has stuck in my mind all these years because, as simple as it seems, it carries a large truth. It rings of Archimedes when he was speaking about the simple tool known as the lever: “Give me but one firm spot on which to stand, and I will move the earth.”
Enter the Electronic Medical or Health Record (EMR or EHR) as it exists in most forms today. As information tools for clinicians, most EMRs have been purchased by administrators who know nothing of patient care or workflow, and most of these EMRs have been reverse engineered from billing and collection systems, because the dollar drives all.

Truly value-driven care is blocked by these misguided tools. Multiple studies have demonstrated that using the EMR adds hours to our workday without corresponding benefit. This only pushes costs up and quality down. In fact, story after story tells of doctors retiring early or changing professional direction to escape the frustrating click, click, click all day long. Compounding this is the federal government mandating meaningless use criteria that say we will not ...

Source: The Health Care Blog - May 8, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized EHR EMR Knowledge Coupler Number Needed to Kill POMR value-based care Source Type: blogs