Abstract
"What Healthcare CIOs Need to Know About the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act & Electronic Health Records: Technology & Government Funding"
Hospitals and physician clinics vary widely in their level of adoption of
computer technology. From Pater charts and over-filled filing cabinets, to
enterprise-wide electronic records systems with online prescribing and digital
imaging, healthcare facilities are at all stages of IT adoption.
Many in healthcare and government want to see that wide gap in IT capabilities
closed and more providers moved to adopt electronic health records (EHR)
systems in order to improve the healthcare industry' s ability to transmit,
share and access critical patient data when and where it is needed.
EHR applications range from simple electronic patient charts with demographic
data, problem lists and medication lists, to integrated intra-hospital
networks with access to diagnostic images, e-prescribing, physician notes, and
decision support tools to alert physicians and nurses to potential errors or
omissions, and to advise them on the best practices.
Proponents claim EHR not only improves patient safety but can save hospitals
-- and potentially the U.S. healthcare system pp millions of dollars.
Skeptics claim EHR benefits are over-rated, and point to the high cost of
EHRs, which typically run in the millions of dollars, and to past
implementation failures -- such as LA computerized physician order entry
system in 2003 -- as proof that EHR' s may not be right for all healthcare
providers.
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