Evidence shows low adoption of electronic health records. This is going to take awhile.

Improving health outcomes in the U.S. won't depend only on evidence-based medicine. It will also depend on better technologies, such as electronic health records. But according to research recently reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, "only 1.5% of U.S. hospitals have a comprehensive electronic-records system (i.e., present in all clinical units), and an additional 7.6% have a basic system (i.e., present in at least one clinical unit)."

These changes will take longer than any of us would like. Steve Lohr of the New York Times wrote about the findings: "'The way electronic medical records are used now has not yet had a real impact on the quality or cost of health care,'" said the project lead, Dr. Ashish K. Jha of the Harvard School of Public Health.

The New York Times continued: "The research also underlines the challenge facing the Obama administration as it seeks to accelerate the adoption of electronic health records through 2015, even though only about 20 percent of physicians now use them. And the research shows that installing the technology does not necessarily mean that the hoped-for gains in quality and cost containment will follow quickly. Under the administration’s plan, doctors and hospitals will receive incentive payments for 'meaningful use' of 'certified' records. The standards will not be complete until the end of the year, but they will include requirements for reporting, data-sharing, alerts and decision-support features that get more stringent year by year."

Comments

[internal medicine emr]

Implementing EMR I think will definitely lead to better care..It could improve the quality and accuracy of medical-record documentation and improve quality of care.There are other more reasons why to move toward a system of electronic medical records..