If the military can't get EMRs, EHRs, right...

Healthcare Renewal blog asks:

If The Military Can't Get Electronic Health Records Right, Why Would We Think Conflicted EHR Companies And Incompetent Hospitals Can?

She writes about...Making yet another case for how the concept of national electronic health records is probably a bad idea at this point in time with respect to our understanding of health IT and its social-technical interactions and challenges, it appears the military's EHR system AHLTA is simply a disaster.

Despite this experience shared in testimony before Congress that she includes in her blog post, perhaps the reason EMRs are such a buzzy topic right now comes from the results of a massive lobby that has grossly over-represented the benefits of healthcare IT, committed a cross-disciplinary invasion of medicine, and created a myth about HIT's supposed transformative powers in curing healthcare's ills.

Nothing like lobbyists to perpetuate a myth on us, especially if there are billions of tax dollars awaiting their clients from their success.

I'm not saying the benefits of EMRs are a myth. But are we ready for them? We, being hospitals, doctors, nurses...patients, insurance companies? And by ready I include...can we maturely, rationally, balance the convenience EMRs promise vs the potential for abuse and exploitation by oh, say, advertisers and Big Pharma, hospitals and...insurance companies?

My one hope is that we can learn from the mistakes of the pioneers in the military's EMR program. And coupled with existing and soon-to-be developed technologies at least create a system that works. Then we can begin to address the other issues of greed, incompetence, inefficiencies...and oh, our healthcare.

Then, again, If the military, with its internal discipline and ability to take over entire modern countries with just a few thousand soldiers lost, and its constrained patient population (active military personnel and families generally free of complex and chronic illnesses) can't get electronic health records right, why would anyone think inept and corrupt EHR companies, incompetent hospital IT departments, and reckless and cavalier hospital executives can?

I want to have hope. But I want it to built on a solid foundation.

Comments

[MedInformaticsMD]

I am a "he!"

I also believe in the promise of HIT, but only if "done right."

There is tremendous complexity underlying those two simple words.

-- MedInformaticsMD