The Patients Are Coming! The Patients Are Coming!

Beyond Electronic Health Records

The CDC recently reported that 55% of physicians are now using EHRs, and 85% of those were somewhat or very satisfied with the technology[1]. We are certainly moving in the right direction, but 55% is only a little over half. The EHR is a basic tool of clinical information management. It sometimes is limited only to the individual doctor’s office and his or her patients. Connecting doctors within the larger practice is a step in the right direction, but a more comprehensive kind of connectivity will be needed to handle the volumes that are already building and that will easily become unmanageable for physicians without some kind of electronic support.

Add to that the boomers’ own expectations and demands of their physicians that some kind of technology is employed. Boomers, who may often work, live and breathe technology, will look skeptically upon practices, clinics, hospitals and integrated delivery networks (IDN) that are not wired to support them. It’s basic customer service. Imagine going to your physician; he inputs the details of your visit into his office system; his practice happens to be in the same building as the regional hospital in your area; he orders lab work for you; his nurse prints out the lab order and you must carry this print-out 50 yards down the hall to the hospital lab because his practice and the hospital are not connected electronically. For how long do you think this will fly? Continue Reading Full Article…