Further to last night's subject message re Electronic Medical Records - below is further insight to what BO's Universal Healthcare plan will mean to us from the perspective of another doctor in our group.
---Original Message---
I appreciated this commentary and maybe I can add to it. Right now there are reportedly over 300 EMR programs available and none of them interface(so much for meaningful exchange). Every time the system needs to be altered to allow "exchange" lots of monies are spent. These systems are mostly set up by businessmen not the people in the trenches who use them so docs are forced to adapt their documentation to fit a not so well designed program. This allows for a very lucrative future for the IT segment. Your doctor's comment is correct too...If the stimulus program will give us $44,000 over five years I am sure the cost will be double. Worse yet, when the system is set up there will be no going back as the "old" way will be nonexistent. Medicine is an art form and not a cook book...........these black and white programs discourage the "art" component. True that it is nice to computerize labs or radiology procedures but all these scanned items are just that, scanned items. The "art" is putting it together for the patient. The other aspect is that these EMRs are designed to "justify" a level of service and are therefore programmed to be lengthy and redundant and sometimes difficult to find the purpose/the point of a problem. I cringe to think that we have lowered our value of health care in setting up a system that justifies costs of a service, store a lot of not so pertinent info and crimps the art of medicine. Doctor/patient interaction and trust between doctor and patient are the most cost effective way to practice medicine. We are moving quickly to a system where that is eroded and where you will have big brother watching with pay for performance. Quality can only go down. The number of primary care physicians can not address the needs and you will see those positions filled by less educated people who will be trained to follow a protocol.
A successful technique in controlling the masses is to abuse man's natural instinct to want to do the correct thing and drive man silly with rules, confusion and needless upset. The general public is so confused that there is no strength left to pay attention with what really is taking place. Look what is going on..............since when should the government be dictating how care is rendered. Would you trust your doctor to manage your finances?? Why will you trust the government to manage your medical care and dictate your entitlement???
A successful technique in controlling the masses is to abuse man's natural instinct to want to do the correct thing and drive man silly with rules, confusion and needless upset. The general public is so confused that there is no strength left to pay attention with what really is taking place. Look what is going on..............since when should the government be dictating how care is rendered. Would you trust your doctor to manage your finances?? Why will you trust the government to manage your medical care and dictate your entitlement???
No comments:
Post a Comment