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How Electronic Medical Records Exploded In Doctors’ Faces And Politicians Got Off Scot-Free
Federalist, the ^ | 07 June 2017 | Greg Scandlen

Posted on 06/10/2017 12:36:42 PM PDT by Lorianne

Edited on 06/10/2017 12:59:59 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

More than a decade ago the media were excited that Hillary Clinton and Newt Gingrich had formed an alliance about reforming health care. In 2005 Dana Milbank wrote in gushing terms in the Washington Post about a joint appearance.

Of course, they were not alone. President Bush had already embraced the idea in his State of the Union speech to Congress. He envisioned a new era of

(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government
KEYWORDS: emr; medical; medicalrecords; patientprivacy; privacy
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Electronic medical records are a joke. I take care of my mother and each time we have a medical encounter I have to fill in forms with all her personal information, drugs taking, health issues etc. It does not help at all. So I have written it all down and created spreadsheets for the drugs and what they are for, how long she's been on them, what they are for, etc. I print it multiple copies and take them everywhere.

At the hospital where she has been several times I have to start over from square one every time. Also, they will not take my printed out sheet but waste time standing a mobile computer while they ask me questions and I read off of the sheet (they won't read it themselves).

Total waste of time and money.

1 posted on 06/10/2017 12:36:42 PM PDT by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne

Ooops, I wanted to add. Even after all this is entered into the computer the doctors attending won’t read it but ask the same questions in the room. They also won’t read the printed information I bring. Every nurse, med-tech, etc. the same thing.


2 posted on 06/10/2017 12:38:08 PM PDT by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne

Amen. In my ER physician productivity dropped 30-40%. Those of us old school docs who can’t type, simply retired.

A good example: I challenge anyone to extract any useful information from a VA medical record. One page handwritten notes now consume 10 pages.

The whole objective of the EMR seems to be to satisfy the word counters who check to see if all of the government mandated “Elements” are checked off, to determine the level of service for billing.


3 posted on 06/10/2017 12:51:07 PM PDT by daifu
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To: Lorianne

Electronic medical records= digital death panels.

An algorithm will determine whether you receive treatment, or a trip to the euthanasia “clinic”.

And of course the “health” insurance industry will write the parameters of that algorithm based on their “risk” assessments.

Healthcare was much more affordable and accessible 20~40 years ago than it is today, and the medical field had no shortage of doctors who could make a good living.

So what went wrong?


4 posted on 06/10/2017 12:51:48 PM PDT by factoryrat (We are the producers, the creators. Grow it, mine it, build it. MAGA!)
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To: Lorianne

The doctor has to spend more time on the computer and less time with the patient, at least mine does. It takes longer on even routine visits so he sees fewer patients. Then he has to see more patients to make up the revenue he needs to pay the staff. Also has to have more staff to handle the EMR. And we all knew it was going to be like this even before Obamacare passed.


5 posted on 06/10/2017 12:54:05 PM PDT by EandH Dad (sleeping giants wake up REALLY grumpy)
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To: Lorianne

Rest assured, your personal, private, confidential, and privileged medical information is perfectly protected from hackers.

That’s sarcasm.


6 posted on 06/10/2017 12:58:42 PM PDT by Excellence (Marine mom since April 11, 2014)
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To: daifu

It might even make some sense if they actually ever looked at the electronic records ... but they never do. They could just ask “are there any new medications you are taking” or something like that to update the list.

On the other hand, my doctor just scribbles down notes all over the patient folder ... sideways, upside down and has to go find the last entry (presumably his scribbles are dated). Thankfully I don’t see him very often. He hates electronic records but his ‘system’ if you want to call it that is chaotic.


7 posted on 06/10/2017 12:58:43 PM PDT by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne

H8 EMR

A huge boondoggle.


8 posted on 06/10/2017 1:02:53 PM PDT by Adder (Mr. Franklin: We are trying to get the Republic back!)
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To: Lorianne

If it is any comfort, the medical people hate it more than you do.


9 posted on 06/10/2017 1:09:09 PM PDT by Cold Heart
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To: Lorianne

The only reasons for electronic medical records is so the government can reach down into every doctor’s office and sift out every individual’s medical information.


10 posted on 06/10/2017 1:14:14 PM PDT by Darteaus94025 (Can't have a Liberal without a Lie)
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To: Lorianne
Your entire medical care is predicated upon two documents.

Your drivers license and your health insurance card.

11 posted on 06/10/2017 1:14:19 PM PDT by AmusedBystander (The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next)
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To: Lorianne

What you said, but also, all of the EMS system are very, very poorly coded and have little or no safeguards and little or no security. Most (if not all EMS systems) aren’t even encrypted.

My wife, a medical professional, has used 8 separate systems during her career from small practices to large hospitals.

They are not secure and they make life harder for the people who are forced to use them.

(and they aren’t even linked together so what’s the point?)


12 posted on 06/10/2017 1:14:30 PM PDT by Noamie
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To: Lorianne

It wiped out the local GP who couldn’t afford the $45,000 to set one up.

As a result, the regionals soaked up the local practices, and the $35 office visit is gone, replaced with the $150 dollar one.

Big medicine gets bigger, while the citizen gets screwed again. The Dems were behind the whole thing.


13 posted on 06/10/2017 1:19:18 PM PDT by Fido969 (IN!)
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To: Lorianne

I work for a clinic and, as the IT guy, am responsible for the EMR.

Having done IT for over 20 years, I have to say that our EMR is one of the most poorly coded and backwards designed systems I’ve ever seen.

I could probably have the support of the providers to switch, but frankly, to be blunt, they all suck.

You also wouldn’t believe the amount of faxing that occurs behind the scenes. Since faxing is HIPAA-compliant, anytime anything is requested or sent, it’s faxed. Then it’s typically scanned into the EMR as a PDF.

The providers don’t look at the info (usually) because it takes too much time to wade through. The cost of people certified to extract the info off the faxes, decide what’s relevant, and code it into the EMR is prohibitive. Our great technological leap forward was to get scans directly into PDF’s, cutting out taking the paper faxes and scanning them manually.

If there’s any sort of data interchange standard, we’re not using it and neither are any of our data sources or data recipients. Heck, even real estate has better data interchange than medicine.

Basically, the vast majority of clinic operations outside of the exam room is butt-covering in case an attorney or the government come calling. The medical side gets done if we still have time.

And, sadly, we’re probably one of the more competent places.


14 posted on 06/10/2017 1:24:17 PM PDT by chrisser
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To: Noamie

That’s true they are not linked.
If I ask one of my Mom’s specialists to send her doctor her records if she’s had some kind of procedure, they cant (or won’t do it). Likewise, the hospital won’t send the records to her doctor(s) so I have to jot down everything they are doing to her, some of which I don’t understand very well, and then update he doctors the next time I visit them. I also have to a list of all her previous procedures, operations etc because they never have all that on any database.

I really don’t understand what the electronic records are for. They don’t seem to be shared with anyone, even with doctors in the same practice.


15 posted on 06/10/2017 1:24:53 PM PDT by Lorianne
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To: chrisser

Wow, that’s sad. Good to know even if depressing. Sounds like it is worse than I thought.


16 posted on 06/10/2017 1:26:40 PM PDT by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne
but ask the same questions in the room

I have often wondered about this, after I tell the nurse why I am there and what my symptoms are, she writes it down on my file, doctor comes in and asks the very same questions. Hello, look at the sheet by your elbow.

17 posted on 06/10/2017 1:29:01 PM PDT by LibertarianLiz
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To: factoryrat

The insurance companies got involved.


18 posted on 06/10/2017 1:29:15 PM PDT by Keyhopper (Indians had bad immigration laws)
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To: Fido969

Not just the Dems. IIRC, the Porkulus that GWB signed had something including EMRs/EHRs in it,


19 posted on 06/10/2017 1:33:58 PM PDT by mewzilla (Was Obama surveilling John Roberts? Might explain a lot.)
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To: mewzilla
This little gem is from 2004...

President Bush continues EHR push, sets national goals

20 posted on 06/10/2017 1:36:25 PM PDT by mewzilla (Was Obama surveilling John Roberts? Might explain a lot.)
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