Will Electronic Records Save Healthcare?

This fictional case study spotlights potential problems with electronic health records. While the error in this particular "study" is not a true failure of the EHR, per se, it does point to complications that arise when multiple systems are not fully integrated or intraoperable. As so often happens when technology is deployed as a solution, it fixes one problem but creates new ones.

Another interesting article, written by a physician with 30 years of experience, wonders if the debate around the rising cost of healthcare is focused on the wrong things. The author, Dr. Tom Shragg, states, "It is not that the current debate tries to address too many problems and attempts to kill too many birds with one stone. Rather, it is that the debate is aimed at the wrong birds – the focus is on the wrong issues."

Dr. Shragg complains that charting through an electronic medical record takes him away from time with his patients. He also believes, "These computer records may improve accounting, but not health care."

But his larger concerns center around the focus on reducing pay for specialists and the concept of moving to a single-payer national health insurance plan. "When a patient needs surgery for colon cancer or breast cancer, when she gets pneumonia or has a heart attack, will paying less to the specialist for treatment improve health care? I may wish there were fewer fires, but reducing the number of firefighters won't make it so. We could do more, perhaps, to prevent fires (and illness), but when prevention fails, we still need people trained and ready to respond."

"Finally, creating a national health insurance to cover everyone will probably increase costs, not decrease them, just as feeding the world's hungry three full meals a day would not reduce our grocery bill. Personally, I think instituting universal health care is the humane thing to do, but let's be honest: Somebody will have to pay for it."

This debate is far from over.