One Physician Ready for the EMR Revolution – #EHRBacklash

In my post about the Coming Physician EHR Revolt (some are calling it the #EHRBacklash), I got the following comment from Rick Spencer, MD.

Let alone the extreme inefficiency of EMR, the generated documents are a waste of time to read. I’ve not found one EMR generated document from an ER or speciaty office that is worth any more than throwing in the trash can. An ER will send you 8 pages on your patient, and you’re lucky if you find one paragragh where a human being actually took the time to enter something useful. God forbid that doctors and nurses should actually see their patients and give good clinical descriptions of their observations and examinations. You can’t fit a round peg in a square hole, and that’s exactly what EMR is all about. What really gripes me is who is all of this for?–insurance companies?– they seem to run every thing else. And, really, what interest does the government have in mandating how helath care providers see their patients?– don’t tell me that it’s for better patient care because I’m sure they could care less. Finally, the medical school professors that taught me 25 years ago would roll over in their graves if they knew how the medical profession just rolled over and let government and insurance companies tell them how to conduct a doctor-patient relationship. I’m eager to be part of any revolution that would put health care providers back in the driver’s seat where they belong. Thanks for this opportunity to get this off my chest!!!!

Is this an isolated case or an example of a larger trend. I personally think it’s part of a larger trend. I’m not sure most doctors are ready for a revolution, but they would certainly welcome a revolution in the way EMR’s document care. I’ve heard hundreds of doctors complain about the spew of data that many EMR vendors push out to satisfy billing.

Along with this pressure, I talked to someone today who said that many doctors are looking at the meaningful use stage 2 requirements and thinking that it may not be worth the effort. The requirements are higher and the EHR incentive is lower. Don’t be surprised if many doctors revolt against MU stage 2 as well.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

   

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