Mitch Keamy is an anesthesiologist in Las Vegas Nevada
Andy Kofke is a Professor of Neuro-anesthesiology and Critical Care at the University of Pennslvania
Mike O'Connor is Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the University of Chicago
Rob Dean is a cardiac anesthesiologist in Grand Rapids Michigan, with extensive experience in O.R. administration.
The article here:
http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/memag/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=590411&pageID=1&sk=&date=
highlights several important problems with the electronic medical record.
- Cutting and pasting is easy, writing is hard. Hence EMRs are filled with mountains ofduplicate information, and almost nothing about what happened to a patient, or why. The article intimates that a single 3x5 card might contain more useful information about a patient than megabytes of EMR.
- Rather than improving practitioners ability to withstand audits,they may create a circumstance where it is dificult or impossible for a practitioner to survive one. The article points out that required documentation and coding may not be supported by individual systems (this will require constant updating). The absolute lack of concordance between documentation and effort severs a long established assumption: that extensive documentation reflects extensive contact and participation.
Stay tuned for further details!
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