This article was published on Health Data Management’s HIT Think, and was written by David Lareau, CEO of Medicomp Systems see the full article here.
Electronic health records continue to get a bad rap—at times, justifiably so. The recent article Death by 1,000 clicks: Where electronic health systems went wrong has spurred new conversations about what can be done to fix EHRs, including making them more physician-friendly and efficient at driving safe, effective patient care.
One school of thought is to replace existing health IT systems with newer technology. For example, a recent Reaction Data report revealed that almost 40 percent of surveyed outpatient providers are looking to replace their EHR and other IT tools with solutions that offer better ease of use, more functionality and increased interoperability with other IT systems. An additional one-third of the surveyed providers indicated dissatisfaction with their current solution, but didn’t have plans to switch systems because of the expense and disruption to their practice.
Regardless of whether organizations choose to keep or replace their current IT solutions, it’s clear that physician dissatisfaction is high—and that, as an industry, it’s time to advance the dialogue and take action to fix our flawed EHRs where they hurt most.
