There is no doubt about the benefits of EMR to everyone. Public Health, Government, Patients and Providers – private practice as well as hospital based.
Yet, why do Providers continue complaining about EMR?
There is one very simple reason.
Inefficiencies at Point of Care. This is a collection of following:
- Reduces eye contact with patient
- Too much attention to computer, software and clicking
- Spending too much time on inefficient software than paying attention to patients.
In other words, the weakest link is the first one – data entry, data collection. What if this single point of contention had a solution? What if we removed the weakest link and made it stronger? I am not suggesting getting rid of or eliminating EMR at all, because we all know the benefits of EMR downstream.
What if there was a way to continue working with paper the same way as providers did in the exam room with patients AND figure out a way to get all the data into EMR without an exorbitant expense? (I am not suggesting scribes in case you are wondering)
I would like to know your views.
