Doctors are divided over the usefulness of current technology in electronic medical records and are unhappy they face penalties for not implementing the often unreliable systems,
USA Today reports.
Doctors will soon face fines and penalties if they haven't adopted the federally required standards.
The problem, says a group of 37 medical societies including the American Medical Association, is that patient safety and privacy can be compromised and the non-standardized systems on the market don't always talk to each other. And many of the systems are not certified by the Drug Enforcement Administration for prescribing controlled substances.
Critics admit electronic records eventually will be the norm, but say the technology should be perfected before the government fines doctors for not using it.
"Physicians passionately despise their electronic health records," AMA President-elect Steven Stack told USA Today. "We use technology quickly when it works … Electronic health records don't work right now."
Healthcare IT News http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ehr-users-dissatisfied-consider-switch reported two years ago that doctors were unhappy with their providers and were switching to new vendors.
Errors in inputting can lead to patient care errors, and the time needed to fill in the records cut into the time doctors are able to spend with patients.
The government reimburses part of the cost of adopting electronic records, but caps it at $44,000. The systems cost from $100,000 to $200,000.
Great Britain actually gave up on its own attempt at mandated electronic records for much the same reasons.
Not everyone is negative.
"We're going to get to the point when we can realize the (technology's) full potential," Robert Wergin, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians told USA Today. "Our feeling is the positives … over time will outweigh some of the frustrations with change."