Lt. Dan, long someone who screams “electronic medical records” any time and every time health care is brought up, might just be wrong after all.
Turns out a new study – written about in today’s New York Times – reveals that little benefit has been seen in electronic patient records:
But a new study comparing 3,000 hospitals at various stages in the adoption of computerized health records has found little difference in the cost and quality of care.
-SNIP-
“There will be no clear answers on the overall payoff from the wider use of electronic health records until we get further along, five years or more,” said Dr. Bell, senior vice president for health information technology services at Masspro, a nonprofit group. “But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t go forward.”
-SNIP-
In the heart failure category, for example, the hospitals with advanced electronic records met best-practice standards 87.8 percent of the time; those with basic computer records, 86.7 percent; and those without, 85.9 percent. The differences in other categories were similarly slender.
Reducing the length of hospital stays, according to many experts, should be a big money-saving payoff from electronic health records — as better care aided by technology translates into less time spent in hospitals. For hospitals with full-featured digital records, the average length of stay was 5.5 days; for those with basic computer records, 5.7 days; and those without, 5.7 days.
The differences, Dr. Jha said, were “really, really marginal.”
Click here to read the rest.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Mark // Nov 17, 2009 at 4:54 pm
The funny part about Dr Dan talking E-health is that, like everything else in Kentucky, he’s a decade or so behind.
2 Thunder Storm // Nov 17, 2009 at 5:28 pm
One huge benefit to me would be to not have to fill out 3 pages of new patient records every time you go to a doctor or hospital with your elderly parents. It takes 30 minutes every time.
Then if you have surgery, they send a packet of papers home. 2 hours later, they are filled out.
Computerized records cannot reduce the length of hospital stays. Thats stupid. Its the care provided by the humans working at the hospital.
But it damn sure can increase paperwork efficiencies.
I’d like to see the postage from hospitals. They send these things stamped “This is not a bill” for even routine office visits. Go to a hospital and you seem to get them for months.
Why not email them. Save a few thousand trees, gallons of gasoline, air pollution and landfill space.
3 Stevie B // Nov 17, 2009 at 10:10 pm
The basic fact is …. Mongiardo simply has NO position on Health Care.
He actually hos NO position on any thing of significance. He relies 100% on what the guys at the DC consulting firm tell him will be palatable.
His answers are like the ones he gave when asked if he really said those things about the governor… he responds ….I’m Not Going To Respond. He will NOT take a stance on his own. Only if the “handlers” tell him it is ok. And look who his handlers are !!!! Is this REALLY the best we have in KY?
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