Rodamala: There are still a few of us dinosaurs around who refuse to play the government game by converting to electronic records. Marcus Welby may be on death’s door, but he’s not kicked the bucket completely. The government will begin reducing payments to doctors who do not use EMR’s and electronic prescribing -— BUT for us, the cost of the reduced payments are much less than the cost to implement the system and maintain it ! Every practice manager and physician I have spoken to say the same thing... using EMR’s slows them down 30% minimum... while I didn’t go to Wharton, it doesn’t take a genius to know if your profit margin isn’t 30% you can’t stay around if you are slowed down 30%. One doc I know has EMRs... he works in office til 5 - goes home, eats dinner and does his “charts” on computers until about 1 am... then get’s up and begins again the next day... no family time, dinners with wife.. playing with kids... etc... Ain’t gonna happen at my office. We may have to go all cash... BUT we won’t go EMR... I think this system and requirement will fall by the wayside eventually as more and more of us tell them to take a flying leap just as Obama care will fall under it’s own weight... only difference is Obamacare will be replaced by something worse... governmental take-over and single payor (read that government control!).
The best days of America and American health care are behind us...
Still... I am hoping for a good “country doctor”. I should be able to trust a professional with experience in the medical field, someone that isn’t worried because I am going to go and sue them. Very often I have been told that I have great intuition and a keen ability to notice the slightest change and that I should have been a doctor.
Right now I wonder what if I had gone to school to be a medical doctor instead of a professional engineer. Would there be a need for an old-school doctor? I know that the trend has been that everyone becomes a specialist... Is there not a need for a general practitioner anymore? I think there is, and I would gladly pay out of my own pocket for those services and tell the insurance companies and the government to stick it.