L. Blair Heath--HIM: Electronic Health Records

L. Blair Heath--HIM: L. Blair Heath--HIM

Electronic Health Records
The author discusses electronic health records. His purpose is to show the statistics of how many physician practices are actually using electronics on a regular basis. The author is surprised to find out the low amount of physicians that have actually made the change to electronic health records. He also wants to demonstrate the reasons that physicians are not embracing EHR. The author wants to show the positives of the technology and the results of making the necessary changes. The results are an increase of productivity and revenue. EHR is also much more efficient.

The author arrived at the conclusion that physicians are not jumping on board to the technology of today. According to the statistics, there is a small percent of physicians using electronics on a routine basis.

There is still a long way to go to have EHR adopted near universally. The eight core capabilities for EHR are very efficient and helpful. The capabilities of EHR are wonderful—decision support, patient support, order management, result management. All of these combined would greatly impact the healthcare of an individual. It only makes sense that in this technological society, that our healthcare would be also technologically advanced. Although the capabilities “seem” wonderful, physicians still do not seem to be willing to make the time-consuming change.

The biggest factor is cost. A large investment is required and it takes 18-24 months to recover the efficiencies gained. Embracing EHR would change the workload within the physicians office.

Change itself is scary. It is also time-consuming. Even if the end result pays off, it is switching over to EHR is the hard part. It is not just an investment of money, it is an investment of themselves. The physicians and staff have to be willing to make the necessary changes and implement electronic health records. There are also so many choices concerning electronic health records. Physicians have a hard time making a decision of which one to choose. After implementing electronic health records, a physician practice can expect to see 25% less patients for a period of 3 months. This is another negative factor that many physicians do not wish to deal with. It is a sacrifice worth making. After the system is up and running efficiently, the physician practice will be able to see more patients than before.