"I spend an extra hour every night because of EPIC."
"The only people who like electronic medical records are those who sell them."
Luddites notwithstanding, electronic records such as EPIC promote better care for a number of reasons. Hand written records are easy to lose or are unintelligible. Computer systems allow for data collection and alerts (if a provider attempts to prescribe a medicine to an elderly patient whose age places her at higher risk for side effects, the screen flashes, "Are you sure....?")
Yesterday: a patient has an X-ray, the radiologists dictates the report, which takes a few days to transcribe, and a few more days to make it to the patient chart.
Today, the radiologist uses voice recognition software, so that by the time the patient has walked from the xray room into my exam room, I have already read the report.
the legend is fuzzy, but the states in dark blue (Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Utah, etc), have a "significantly higher" use of electronic medical records; as for Florida, Louisiana, Kentucky--well, what can I say?
I have to admit that one of my favorite parts of appts with my ob or the boys' pediatrician (drs in their 60's and 50's, respectively) is hearing them talk to themselves as they (mostly successfully) navigate the computer system to record info or order prescriptions :).
ReplyDeleteHere we work with 3 different EMR systems between Primary Children's, University Hospital, and Huntsman Cancer Institute and I have found Epic to be the easiest to use-post aggravating learning curve.
ReplyDelete