Australian Medical Association on EHR rollout: 'Hard to use, increases workload, hard to find data, we just don't seem to have got the outcome we were looking for.'

Some familiar themes from the Australian Medical Association on their attempt at a National Programme for Health IT:Electronic health records rollout has not met expectations, Australian Medical Association sayshttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-04/ama-says-rollout-of-electronic-health-records-needs-work/5066680 Updated Mon 4 Nov 2013, 8:59am AEDT The Australian Medical Association says the rollout of electronic health records has not met expectations.Federal Health Minister Peter Dutton has announced an independent review of the project to see how it can be improved.AMA national president Dr Steve Hambleton, one of the panel members for the review, says e-health records need to be made easier for doctors to use.Ease of use seems a constant, unremitting problem.  An independent review (if truly independent) is a wise move - and sorely needed in this country, where the narrative is controlled by the industry and its government sponsors/cheerleaders.A bit of wisdom comes to mind, from (of all people) weapons inventor Mikhail Kalashnikov:  "All that is too complex is unnecessary, and it is simple that is needed." (Satirically speaking, would it be helpful  if health IT designers, when suffering from, say, acute renal colic, or Bornholm disease a.k.a. devil's grip, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bornholm_disease, were made to wait for treatment until the doctors and nurses navigated every single tab, menu, pulldown, selection list, etc. to enter all of thei...
Source: Health Care Renewal - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Tags: healthcare IT usability healthcare IT difficulties Australian Medical Association Peter Dutton Dr Steve Hambleton Source Type: blogs