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Records Management: Doctors Slow to Go Electronic
Converting doctor’s records to electronic format have many know benefits, yet very few doctors have done anything about it. It doesn’t matter whether the doctors are catering to rich or poor patients, the numbers are similar.
The potential benefits of electronic health records include:
– Improved Billing Accuracy
Insurance claim processing is tedious when data from paper forms need to be fed directly in to the billing system
– Reduction in Duplication of Services
You don’t need to have the same lab tests, diagnostics imaging and other services redone when different doctors or hospitals are involved
– Facilitation of Clinical trials
It would be easier to identify potential candidates/participants if records could be electronically searched
– Safety
Mistakes from transcribing handwritten information can have serious consequences. Electronics records can minimize such mistakes.
The benefits sound compelling, why is it that doctors are dragging their feet? Money.
A survey of doctors performed by Massachusetts General Hospital found that only 4 percent of US doctors have gone electronic.
The study found that the main impediment to change is the cost. They esitmate that the average cost per doctor to convert to electronic is $60,000.
The good news is that 42 percent of doctors say that within two years they will go electronic. Also the US federal government has set aside a $150 million fund to finance a pilot program to help US doctors make the change over and to create a best practice template.
