I think HIT (health care IT) has 3 major reasons it seems to stink at times, to paraphrase.
1. It is a highly complex (Data Wise) environment. (even aviation obeys the rules of physics, sometime patients not so much).
2. At least as far as physicians are concerned, the end users are highly sophisticated and intelligent as well as fiercely independent customers who usually came from somewhere else and are used to having of their own way, or at least the way they used to do it they were first trained.
3. This is a highly regulated industry, as far as the output or input goes (I.e. what we have to do), much less regulation for the actual appearance or function (lack of any standards at all go UI).
in addition we have very high expectations of technology to assist us: for instance digital radiography. I can hardly imagine practicing without immediate access to images. Yet a short ten years ago I had to walk from the fourth floor down to the radiology suite on the first floor and wait in line to have a film pulled for me.
While Word is complex, the average user barely scratches the functions list, and uses only what is a relatively simple program, with no content. IN an EMR, with CPOE and CDS, you have enourmous complexity and content requirements.
Back to the original question, our hospital uses Siemens soarian product, and the experience has been spotty although access to the information is clearly better than with the paper chart. I don't love it but I can use it to take care of patients.
