-By Warner Todd Huston
McClatchy has an interesting article that warns that the vaunted “electronic medical record” is no panacea for efficiency in the healthcare field and warns that a headlong rush to digitize patient’s records is a bad move unless some far-reaching plans are made before digitizing begins.
The paper chain uses the example of the three largest hospitals in “tech-savvy Seattle” where it just so happens that none of the electronic records systems that each hospital installed can communicate with one another. The systems are proprietary and cannot be made to link up and this means that patient’s records are no more portable than they ever were. Despite all the “tech-savvy” in Seattle, these computer systems are basically a falure.
Worse, the piece warns that so-called stimulus money being sent willy-nilly into hospitals nationwide to digitize records will be wasted unless some way to assure compatibility is thought out before the money is thrown away on ill-conceived programs of digitization.
So, once again, the left throws around buzz words like “electronic medical records” and creates little thought out programs to pursue the subject and then throws fistfuls of money down a rat hole to fund them.
There are some great points in this piece that should be considered when the subject of digitizing medical records is raised.
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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It would be great if a technical standard could be agreed on, but every time they have a meeting about it some yahoos show up from out of town and keep screaming “socialist!” during the opening remarks.
LOL
Maybe they should hold a meeting by email? That way they don’t have to be forced to deal with the lowly, unwashed, public. Take a note from Democrat lawmakers…. avoid the people as much as possible. They don’t matter anyway.
Given the number of people showing up at Townhalls with guns, plus all the Union thugs beating up poor innocent party-neutral black men, that’s probably the way to go.