Electronic medical records: Mastering the maze

Physicians who have overcome the obstacles of integrating an EMR system into their practices see the benefits to their patients and their communities.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. Dec. 24/31, 2001.

Can the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and subsequent anthrax threat lead to wider deployment of electronic medical records? After the attacks, a number of health care technology companies and other observers called for broader use of technology to help ensure a more effective response to bioterrorism threats and mass medical emergencies. They say electronic medical records could help save lives in an emergency because important patient data could be transmitted quickly to doctors and other providers.

Tech-savvy physicians don't necessarily agree with that assessment. Electronic medical records, or EMRs, would be useful in typical emergencies or routine patient encounters, but not in a mass emergency like the one caused by the attack on the World Trade Center, they say.

That's because electricity and telecommunications could be down and conditions would be so chaotic that doctors wouldn't have the time or the ability to access electronic records, much less paper files, said Brian Keaton, MD, an emergency physician at Summa Health System in Akron, Ohio. "In that kind of environment, I'm not sure an EMR would help you," said Dr. Keaton, director of the provider's Summa Center for Emergency Medical Informatics.

He and other physicians expect terrorism fears to spur federal efforts to establish a national data-sharing network for public health surveillance. But those fears won't drive practicing physicians to adopt electronic records, they say.

Still, physicians say it's only a matter of time before they routinely use electronic records to deliver better care to patients. They don't know when that will happen, but a number of developments, including high-profile pressure to reduce medication errors, are expected to lead doctors -- willingly or not -- to widely adopt electronic records. [...]