UNHEALTHY HEALTH RECORDS

Is your doctor skeptical of the electronic health record systems (EHRs) in use at many practices and hospitals nationwide? S/he has good reason: According to a Kaiser Health News and Fortune investigation, the introduction of EHRs has been so sloppy that costs have skyrocketed and patients have been seriously injured by providers working with inaccurate information.

An obvious red flag — systems that couldn’t share data with one another — has gone unaddressed. Even former Vice President Joe Biden couldn’t get his late son Beau’s records moved from one hospital to another during his cancer treatment, he told the reporters.

And it’s not just patients who are suffering. Doctors are so stressed by these systems (an emergency physician will make 4,000 mouse clicks during an average shift) that many are choosing early retirement, the investigation found.

This comes as no surprise to us here at Sheldon Sowell Center for Health. After surveying available software we decided to write our own, and have been doing so since 1998.

The information posted on this blog and website are for general information only and should never be relied on as specific medical advice for an individual reader.  No financial relationship exists between us and any recommended products or persons mentioned. All material contained here is the property of the Sheldon Sowell Center for Health, PC, and cannot be copied, reprinted, or linked to without our express permission.