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March 7 - Baltimore Sun Examines Physicians' Reluctance to Use EHRs

Although electronic health records have been considered the "Next Big Thing in health care" for the past two decades, 90% of U.S. physicians and more than two-thirds of U.S. hospitals continue to opt for paper records, the Baltimore Sun reports. David Merritt, director of the Center for Health Transformation, said, "Health care is at least a generation behind the rest of society in terms of technology," adding, "Doctors and hospitals don't use the technology we take for granted everywhere else."

The Sun attributes this "lag" to a "colossal, inertia-filled health care system, a paucity of good software, no incentives to adopt new technology and a lack of government leadership." Merritt said the U.S. health care system is "such a convoluted system" that when people "think about changing that kind of behemoth, it's daunting." There are also some concerns about the privacy of EHRs.

However, "almost everyone agrees that moving from paper to bits will improve health care," because, overall, they "reduce medical errors, save lives" and have the potential to save "hundreds of billions of dollars," according to the Sun. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who has pushed for the adoption of EHRs, said, "It's hard to believe that America lags behind the world in adoption of the information technology that can save lives and make health care more affordable -- yet that's exactly the case today," adding, "Congress and the administration should make a commitment to bringing the nation's health system into the information age."

According to the Sun, several large companies, including Microsoft and Google, recently have announced plans to offer online personal health records, which "will likely spur digitization" efforts.

Source: Kaiser Network

(View the Daily News Archive)