Guys,
Let's not forget the "Tracked Items" section where any practice can set up some of the favorite things, like A1C's, various lab levels or other things to track. At some point I gather Jon may expand on this section so we can have more it we care to. But it works for our small purposes.
The problem is the P4P and CCHIT kind of imply that any carrier or the gov't should be suddenly able to ask us to produce data on anything they darn well want to track. The Level of granuality for such a thing is just insane and it is this stupid level of sub-dividing up any and all things entered that is going to kill (is killing) EMR's for the average small office.
And as someone who studied lots of experimental model and stats none of this data collected is really very valid anyway. Is is polluted with subject and experimentor bias from the very nature of it's collection and use. No less is any thing from either side (Patient or Provider) double blind.
Yes tracking things to see how you or your practice is doing is all well and good, being able to bring up DM patients that need some follow-up is a great reason to use any EMR, but much beyond that is BULLCCHIT, especially in the solo, small and even mid-sized office. We should not all be obligated (it's kind if illegal and unethical actually) to turn each and every patient and encounter into a study. Where is both the provider's and the patient's rights of informed consent? No less the actual protection of the quality of the data collected?
We in this business need to stop falling for and giving in to each and every new trick these SOB's come up with in their attempt to tie us up in knots and take away the money for your services that we have all worked so hard for. Stand up for yourselves for goodness sake and get a clue.
Sorry for going off so, but this data mining and tracking thing really gets me going. We are here to guide and heal, not to mine data to create false studies based on corupt data that lead to incorrect inferences for the great corporate and gov't gods of the oh mighty dollar.
Good Night and Good Luck,
Paul
