Health Care goes electronic

by rdan

Health Care Think Tank points to a note on President-elect Obama’s website concerning electronic record keeping for medical records.

The new guy Tom (STR) offers no comment himself. In Boston, the major hospitals came together and mandated an electronic record keeping for the area, and compliance is very broad. It does mean privileges are maintained…a powerful incentive.

Personal experience shows it to be efficient in identifying a patient across networks, satellite service and specialty areas in the region, local doctor’s notes and records, and insurance.

It was disconcerting to watch a doctor or nurse practitioner type on the laptop during the interview. My experienced doctor handled that well, her nurse practitioner (young to me…?30’s?)less well for interview technique, one specialist less well due to awkwardness with the technology.

Otherwise not much difference for the patient, but lots more information was accessed over time. Hopefully having to enter the data at point of service will become smoother. I see a problem with history taking, however, becoming worse.