Electronic Medical Records: What’s The Hold Up?
by Bill Burns on May 7, 2009
An April 19, 2009 New England Journal of Medicine article found that only 17% of U.S. physicians use either a minimally functional or a comprehensive electronic-records system. (17% can you believe how alarming low that number is?) I’m going to have to do my own straw poll, heck between the army of physicians and allied health professionals my brood supports from Family Practitioners, Cardiologists, Pediatric Otolaryngologists and OBGYN. I bet I see and physicians interacting with their EMR’s on almost every visit.
Use of Electronic Health Records in U.S. Hospitals: NEJM Article
The major barrier for health IT systems may be cost. Seventy-three percent of hospital respondents in the NEJM article said they did not have enough capital for the systems, and 44% were concerned about the maintenance costs. The Obama administration plans to help physicians through reimbursements of up to $60,000 per medical practice and $11 million per hospital. But hospital technology systems can range from $20 million to $200 million.
One way to address these costs is by leveraging the medical information we have access to today. According to a recent report by Forrester Research, current server utilization in many data centers is hovering around 10 percent to 20 percent. By adopting virtualization, these IT environments can increase efficiency and reap the maximum benefits of an efficient IT infrastructure. This efficiency becomes even more critical as the influx of data continues to grow as the number of devices connected to the network, including PCs, RFID devices, and tablet and notebook computers expands.
We have the tools to deliver enterprise wide system wide information technology for healthcare professionals today like we do in the manufacturing, banking and financial services sectors. Let’s stop trying to reinvent proprietary data approaches and vendor locks in strategies that keep our practitioners from the data they (we) so desperately need.
Comments (3 )
Jay Andrews on 21 May 2009 at 8:32 pm
The Obama administration plans to help physicians through reimbursements of up to $60,000 per medical practice and $11 million per hospital———
it is said that if all the hospitals in US uses electronic systems for its transaction and billing it would save $11 billion annually.Thus its a good thought to invest money on EMR’s for the hospitals in US!
Jay Andrews on 22 May 2009 at 11:18 am
The EMR software application facilitates input, storage, transfer and retrieval of medical information within a practice and enables interfacing with other data providers outside the practice.It is also significant as a financial benefits including savings on transcription, recording and proof reading
Andy Stones on 27 May 2009 at 10:10 am
Very nice article. Like Jay is saying there`s alot of talk about the new Bill which has been passed to introduce EMR in hospitals around the US, there is a mixed reaction. But there is no doubt that EMR is the future of Health care.
