Comments on: Electronic Health Records: The Good, The Bad, and the Uncertain http://www.physiciansnews.com/2009/09/14/2565/ Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:54:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: cachen http://www.physiciansnews.com/2009/09/14/2565/ Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:54:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Comments on: Electronic Health Records: The Good, The Bad, and the Uncertain http://www.physiciansnews.com/2009/09/14/2565/ Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:54:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: cachen http://www.physiciansnews.com/2009/09/14/2565/comment-page-1/#comment-2433 cachen Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:33:03 +0000 http://www.physiciansnews.com/?p=2565#comment-2433 The main study (NELM, 2008) routinely used to demonstrate low usage rates here is fatally flawed. It used a definition of electronic record as a complete and fully integrated/connected record that only a few harvard-affiliated and other major medical centers could lay claim too. It is analogous to saying no one uses interstate highways because every home doesn't have its own easy on-ramp. Thousands of smaller hospitals/office practices have a functional (for their purposes) electronic record, and they have capability to share it with other providers (at their discretion). Even within the model VA Health System not all providers are able to see all patients records across every (VISN) network. Further, the true electronic record innovators mostly work "offline" from the fully-integrated record so their enhanced systems and prototypes likewise would not show up as "adopted" within this study. Next time, ask for the "degree" or "percent" of information captured in the EHR if you want the true measure. The main study (NELM, 2008) routinely used to demonstrate low usage rates here is fatally flawed. It used a definition of electronic record as a complete and fully integrated/connected record that only a few harvard-affiliated and other major medical centers could lay claim too. It is analogous to saying no one uses interstate highways because every home doesn’t have its own easy on-ramp.

Thousands of smaller hospitals/office practices have a functional (for their purposes) electronic record, and they have capability to share it with other providers (at their discretion). Even within the model VA Health System not all providers are able to see all patients records across every (VISN) network.

Further, the true electronic record innovators mostly work “offline” from the fully-integrated record so their enhanced systems and prototypes likewise would not show up as “adopted” within this study.

Next time, ask for the “degree” or “percent” of information captured in the EHR if you want the true measure.

]]>