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In a massive article Fortune and Kaiser Health News have teamed up to report on the shame of EHRs. They cite many instances of death and maiming secondary to problems with EMRs. They put the blame where it belongs on the Government, EHR vendors and hospitals. The government under Obama rushed the onset of EHR and then compounded the problem by mandating "meaningful use" and giving money or withholding money for not hitting targets. They also deliberately neglected to address any problem reporting mandates at the behest of the vendors. The vendors only cared about market share and money and not about usefulness and interoperability. The hospitals only cared about getting more money and therefore forced their providers (not physicians) to use their product. The physicians were the ones that tried to make things work but failed because of gag clauses signed by contracts between their hospital and the vendors. They had to stay long hours or work at home unpaid in order to make the EHRs work but they never did and still don't. Even today the Congress has determined that EHRs are not medical devices and can not be regulated by the FDA. There is still not interoperability and thousands of mistakes are made by these devices due to their clunky and inefficient interfaces and small checkboxes which provide no meaningful information but lead to errors. The feds have spent $36 Billion on this ill-conceived and negligently designed project and will not admit to having made a mistake. The vendors will not report their errors and will still not allow others to use their product. The hospitals do not want the physicians or other hospitals to steal their patients so they make it very had to get information and almost impossible for patients to get meaningful medical records in a reasonable time and for reasonable amount of money. This is a continuing disaster and blot on medicine.
A second article based on the above calls EHRs too big to fail. The feds have spent the $36 ir $38 Billion based on meaningful use criteria they outlined so the vendors and the hospitals could game the system. o date three vendors have paid the feds $357 million for their "meeting" the artificial criteria without being operational. Some of the systems such as the one in Methodist Community Health System may not track prescriptions properly. Top
Patients at La Porte Hospital in Indiana are starting to speak up about the long standing billing practices of the hospital. The hospital seems to have a propensity to sue patients for unpaid bills when they were never billed or erroneously billed. Top
Mayo clinic believes the only fair way to pay physicians is on straight salary with no incentives. This, they say, gets rid of pay disparities and removes the incentive to order more than necessary for the patient. Top
DISCLAIMER: Although this article is updated periodically, it reflects the author's point of view at the time of publication. Nothing in this article constitutes legal advice. Readers should consult with their own legal counsel before acting on any of the information presented.