EHR and Their Collapse

The Electronic Health Record has been an oft praised tool and was incented by the Stimulus bubble of 2009. It was to have changed the practice of Medicine and saved billions. We have had serious concerns from several perspectives. First it detracts from "listening" to the patient, second it does not allow even minimal temporal record analysis, and third it was mandated by the Government.

Now comes a report by RAND, who had initially promoted the concept, which in amednews states:

Researchers at the RAND Corp. say their 2005 prediction that health information technology could save the U.S. more than $81 billion annually has not come to pass. But the organization isn’t placing the blame on itself for its inaccurate prognostication.

Instead, in a report in the January Health Affairs, researchers from the policy think tank placed the blame on “shortcomings in the design and implementation of health IT systems” 

 Instead of saving $81 billion I would argue it costing that on top of everything. It was not the shortcomings of the design, it was the demands of HHS and the meaningful use standard process. Physicians have added new staff, the avoid contact with patients, the systems cannot communicate, and the systems failed to allow simple correlations over time, such as weight and HbA1c.

The article continues:

They blamed vendors for creating systems that are difficult to use and can’t connect with other electronic health records, echoing physician complaints about them. However, the researchers also said doctors and hospitals have not invested the “considerable” time and effort necessary to learn how to use the systems, and adapt their work flow to ensure that technology is smoothing processes, not hindering them.

In reality the blame should be placed upon the current Administration and its process of Government mandated rules.