Electronic Medical Records Fail to Improve Quality in Doctor's Offices: New Study
Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) failed to improve the quality of outpatient health care in 2003 and 2004, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School. The results of the study are published in the July 9th issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. Widely touted as a panacea for a variety of quality problems in the U.S. health care system, the presence of EMRs actually had no measurable effect on 14 of 17 quality indicators measured by medical researchers. The study was funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ; a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).
EMRs store a patient's complete medical history in electronic form, often eliminating paper charts (in some cases, paper charts are also kept as back-ups). Previous studies have examined the role of EMRs in hospitals with acutely ill patients, but few have examined their ability to improve quality in outpatient clinics and physician offices -- where the bulk of U.S. patients get their medical care.
The authors of this study note that of the 1.8 billion physician visits in 2003 and 2004, only 18% involved the use of EMRs. They speculate that this low utilization may have been the result of imperfect, early technology, which has since been improved, and because older physicians are not yet accustomed to relying on the most advanced features of EMRs, which include physician recommendations regarding diagnosis, and computer-generated advice concerning which medications or treatment options to use for each patient.
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