More Questions About Health IT

Two doctors in a Washington Post Op-Ed today called into question President Obama's huge $50 billion investment in electronic health records for every American, which was part of the economic stimulus plan. When I read it, it reminded me of what my personal doctor, who had recently installed an electronic medical record system, told me when I asked what he thought about the system. First from the Post Op-Ed:

What's more, evidence suggests that adoption of some computerized systems has not helped but harmed patients. After the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh added automated prescribing recommendations to a commercial electronic records system, the institution documented a more than threefold increase in the death rate among child patients. Another leading system contributed to more than 20 different types of medical errors.

There are thousands of small groups of physicians in the United States, the majority of which are not ready for this sea change of interconnected health information.

In short, my doctor said he was worried that the his system's interface made it easy to input a prescription error if he wasn't very careful while clicking the mouse. The system had been "a pain," he said.