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USA Today commentary lists many reasons for slow EHR adoption

EHR Connection, October 20, 2008

A laundry list of reasons explains why only 13% of U.S. physicians have transitioned to an EHR system, according to a commentary in the October 1 issue of USA Today.
 
Kevin Pho, MD, a primary care physician in Nashua, NH, and a member of the publication’s board of contributors, offers the following explanation in his commentary: 
  • Upfront costs can be as high as $36,000 per physician
  • The learning curve for these programs is steep
  • Physicians receive only 11% of the savings from EHRs with most going to health insurers and the government
  • Rising office and malpractice costs make the decision to use digital records fiscally unpalatable
  • Most electronic systems are problematic; many distill the patient encounter to a series of “yes” or “no” questions that yield computer-generated notes almost devoid of useful clinical information
  • Few standards exist to allow the hundreds of products on the market to communicate with each other
  • Modernizing health information technology in the United States will be expensive; estimates are in the hundreds of billions of dollars 
Click here to read the complete commentary on EHRs in USA Today.

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