I am with you. I honestly think Ms Malkin is off on this one.
There is no convincing data that shows EHR improve patient outcomes. The systems are many upgrades away from being useful. Very expensive. Very cumbersome. Productivity plummets when they are introduced into health systems. Why would any organization/business turn its most highly compensated employees into clerical workers? Clearly modernization of records will occur and should but forcing it into the system by the government as usual is not working.
The trial lawyers know it. They are already suing for mistakes made because of the changes.
In fact, I'll use your records to track you down, stalk you to the local Denny's where you're having a cup of coffee together, and plunk myself down in your booth and initiate a long and intimate discussion of your medical history and nagging problems that my patented Little Liver Pills can help you with. You'll be so glad you met me -- I'll be totally informed with a 360o panoramic perspective of your personal health, and several suggestions how you can make me rich.
And speaking of "three-sixties", I'll of course have access to your psych evals, workplace colleague- and supervisory-evaluation 360's and personality-sorter results, so I'll know you better than you know yourself, which will come in handy if I need to manipulate you a little bit.
We're going to have so much fun making me rich and powerful together!
While electronic records may be a good idea for the VA and the military, they are a bad idea for medicine. I observe this daily as my wife, a general surgeon in private practice for 27 years, has struggled to implement the EMR boondoggle in her small practice. Not only do the docs have to pay attention to their computer during patient visits, it has cost her virtually all of her limited free time. She works every day on EMR. The regulations are onerous, the system is slow, and it is costly.
If you think doctors are overpaid and underworked, I’d suggest you spend a day with my wife - the standard issue day starts at 0630 and ends when she arrrives home at say 1830 or later. This is straight through, with no “break” for lunch and little time to even sit down. On her “day off” she spends 6-10 hours doing EMR; she typically spends much of each Saturday or Sunday at the nook table, doing EMR. Part of this is because she sees 25-30 patients in office before operating on them - she is busy. But she never had this much time commitment in her “off hours” Those really don’t exist anymore - because of EMR.