some older doctor in Maine had her license yanked because she wouldn’t switch to computers
Yup. Even before the ACA, the whole coding and documentation game became about jumping through hoops for reimbursement, not contributing to patient care.
This goes back to long before EMRs. As a Resident in the 80s one learned that while a “hospital chart” may be 4 inches thick there were only about 6 to 10 pages in there that were really relevant. Everything else in there was only relevant to some other profession, accountants, lawyers, what have you. As a Resident you learn where the pages you need are quickly. Same goes for EMRs. I remember being shocked when I finally went on Active Duty in the Army and started handling records from the 60s and 70s. Sick call entries of one line, “Cold, Sudafed.” 20 years of health care annotated on 2 pages. It was like opening a timecapsule from a different world. I learned from oonlighting in ERs you could tell what the priorities of the institution were pretty easily. If they wanted you to see patients they gave you plenty of nurses and you space on the “form” was about 2 inches by 1 inch. Nurses discharged patients and handed them pill bottles and instructions. You could see and document 75 patients in 12 hours pretty easily.
When the priorities changed, things changed. Try seeing half that number today. You can’t.
Physician friends tell me that EMR (Electronic Medical Records) now has killed their productivity by more than 30%.
So they don’t spend the day as data entry clerks, many have hired “Scribes” to follow them through a patient visit and who enters the data for the doc so he doesn’t have to do it. Permission is requested asking if the scribe can be present for the visit.
New companies have been started just to be scribes for docs - one I know by the son of a physician (dad’s idea of course).
Thank you government for ruining the quality of our healthcare and raising its cost with your absurd requirements......just as you do with everything you touch........
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
My ER visit for sudden GI pain, with a CT was 25 pages long. Diagnoised Diverticulitis, but that is not what the CT actually showed, just the lower tip of the colon was slightly enlarged and maybe inflamed per the Gastro’s reading days later.
We can thank W for this, IIRC. The EHR/EMR cr@p started with the first Porkulus bill...
“My pediatric practice is one that harkens back to days long ago when physicians knew their patients and pertinent medical histories by heart. My 81-year-old father and I were in practice together for the past 16 years; he still used the very sophisticated “hunt and peck” to compose emails. The task of transitioning to an electronic record system seemed insurmountable, so we remain on paper. Our medical record system has not changed in almost five decades. I would not have it any other way.”
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How long will folks be able to recall and communicate things like above.....and/or.............???
Fax’s in 2018?
The guy is so far behind he can never catch up.
His dad is a dinosaur
Life expectancy in the U.S. is going down since the ACA kicked in. Funny that you never hear what caused this result.
new codes advertised as “increased precision” is actually screening for denial of coverage, in addition to an administrative burden.
my doctor does not use the EMR at all, just old faction charts.. mine is thick...
relegating the role of physician to that of a data-entry clerk.