What One Doctor Thinks of EHRs

Electronic health records got a lot of attention on Thursday, with House Democrats putting $20 billion in their stimulus package to help pay for digitized medical records and Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., holding a hearing on the subject. During the hearing, Mikulski warned about a "techno-boondoggle" if a network of health records isn't managed properly.

What could possibly go wrong? Ask your doctor next time you go in for a visit about electronic health records. I did, and I didn't hear what I expected.

This week, I went in for my annual physical and noticed a computer monitor in the examining room. While I sat on the examining table, my doctor, who is a partner in a rather large practice in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, sat behind a monitor and keyboard, typing my answers to his usual set of questions into my now electronic file. After awhile I asked him what he thought of his new system. Long silence.