On several physician forums (like Sermo) you will find thread after thread, the gist of which is "I don't want an EMR; they just make our lives worse". (Sorry, David, but compared to most, you are no Luddite...you are an "early adopter"). I would love to see the EClinical, NextGen, or Epic boards; my bet would be that the sentiment there is much the same. With AC, I think we get more positives, but I don't sugarcoat it; with the good comes some bad.
I believe that we have no choice about it; an EMR is a necessity; if not now, then very soon. So to some extent the question of "better with it or without it?" is moot. I think the point made by David (and Bill and John and Travis) is that when you transition to an EMR, especially AC, the default is to give the physician more of the clerical work. AC would be great for a "micro practice" (one with NO employees). Sometimes I find it kind of relaxing to reformat faxes, send refills, mark up lab reports with my electronic pen...but that is NOT the most efficient way for me to run my practice. I agree that I do more non-physician work than I did; part of the ongoing struggle of EMR adoption is to look for ways to delegate. I am happy to talk about ways to do so, and I think we should.
Not to beat my old, nearly dead horse, but while implementation of AC may be easier than most EMR's, making it work efficiently is complicated. More attention has got to be paid to helping people set it up and find efficient work flows in their practices. This will be especially true as thousands of EMR skeptics begin to use it.
Last edited by JBS; 09/14/2010 9:12 PM.
