Comments on: Dutch nationwide EHR postponed. Are they in good company?

By: Deresa Claybrook

Deresa Claybrook — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:21:07 +0000

I am a health information management consultant in the US. This is very interesting to find that other countries are putting the electronic health record on hold. I have been working on several task force to make interconnectivity happen from state to state so I can understand the frustration. Another interesting note was about the amount of PHR (40, ooo patients have them) and yet so many are not using them. I agree that we will make the transition to the electronic health record because we have all the elements that you spoke of. We are all working in the right direction.

By: TG

TG — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:52:41 +0000

I am a physician practicing in the USA. As I understand it from colleagues who have practiced abroad, we in the USA go overboard in documentation, probably because of the massive lawsuits and threats of lawsuits we labor under. This is also consistent with what I find when I review medical records, which is that >90% of the info in the medical record is useless. What an MRI showed five years ago, for example, may be helpful. What a patient’s temp or weight or her subjective rating of her degree of pain after a surgery was, on the other hand, is of virtually no use to her later caregivers. The MAIN issue for us here in the USA continues to be CO$T, and IT does not contribute to making healthcare less expensive. Indeed, it just makes it even easier to continue to waste money.

By: MedInformaticsMD

MedInformaticsMD — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 15:12:06 +0000

“Even the paradigm shift needs to be scrutinized as to whether there are bonafide long term benefits or is it the dream work of HIT zealots, dreamers, and a few political lobbyists.”

As a medical informaticist, I always viewed clinical IT as a tool to aid health care ENABLERS (physicians, nurses, etc.), not a tool to slow them down to provide data for facilitating health care facilitators (SUPPORT personnel and payers) in addition to “REVOLUTIONIZING” medicine (whatever that means). The latter is a term of bellicose grandiosity clearly coming from starry eyed zealots and opportunists.

By: noah zark

noah zark — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 05:07:19 +0000

Kudos to Dr.Klink for awakening from his dreams of IT, just in time to save hospitals and the Dutch system of medical care from meltdown.
The privacy breaches engendered by these EHR devices are epidemic and the degree to which these devices and electronic ordering systems endanger patients and diminish outcomes is formidable but never scientifically determined. Even the paradigm shift needs to be scrutinized as to whether there are bonafide long term benefits or is it the dream work of HIT zealots, dreamers, and a few political lobbyists.