Why We Need to Improve EHR Software
Systems
H
aving had the privilege of practicing medicine for over three
decades, I have witnessed exponential technological ad-
vances to advance the quality of patient care: ultrasound, CT
scans, MRI’s, PET scans, the science of genomics, to name
a few, have changed the way medicine is being practiced and
how patients are treated.
Unfortunately, some of the technology advances have not ac-
complished the promised end results and are in desperate need
of improvement. Topping the list of needed replacements is today’s electronic health records (EHRs) software systems.
While the promise of replacing paper charts and eliminating
preventable errors due to illegible handwriting was certainly
necessary, the EHR systems developed have contributed to a
decline in the quality of health care. Forty-three percent of phy-
sicians polled by the American Medical Association believe the
EHR has made their jobs more difficult. It alone has contributed
to burn-out of excellent physicians, causing many to prematu-
rely retire from the medical arts. A major reason given by those
that have left or are contemplating leaving medicine is the fact
that these tech nological systems have led to the destruction of
the physician –patient relationship in favor of a relationship with
awful software.
A few physician quotes:
“Sad to spend my day staring at a screen while people share
vulnerable moments”
“I spend more time clicking boxes than assessing and caring
for my patients”
“We have lost that intimate relationship with our patients & the
art of medicine….Instead, we are turned into robots.”
“EHR’s were designed to decrease errors. I don’t believe I am
making fewer errors. I am simply making different errors.”
“EMR is built for the billers and not for health care providers.
Doctors and patients should be the focus of EMR design, not
reimbursements.”
Along with the interference that today’s EHR systems have
created with the doctor-patient and nurse-patient relationships, there is a complete lack of communication and integration be-
tween software systems that results in an expensive, unusable,
and unconnected software that frustrates doctors and nurses
and fails patients. In today’s ultra- specialized health care
world, technologies that allow for real-time communication, in-
tegration, and data sharing is what is desperately needed for
the best patient care. Sharing is caring!
EHR’s can be a good thing for patient care if we make it that
way. Doctors need to be at the table to make this happen, not
just policy makers. We need to empower physicians to par-
ticipate in the development of platforms that take care of our
patients within the EHR. The EHR should be and can be as
user-friendly as your favorite social media app. Technology
should enable and enhance the human connection, and then
get out of the way. The opposite has happened with current
EHR’s and this must change.
The current software industry needs to collaborate with physi-
cians and together make the next-generation EHR work for all.
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