Why We Need E-Medical Records

We recently came across this story from a CBS affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth about 20-year-old Colton Read, who serves in the Ninth Intelligence Squadron at Beale Air Force Base, Calif. He entered the David Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base near Sacramento to have his gall bladder removed and ended up with his legs amputated. The surgeon accidentally cut Read's aortic artery during surgery, causing Read to lose so much blood that his legs had to be removed.

A long-time federal information technology executive familiar with health systems told Nextgov that cases like this illustrates why we need electronic health records. He wrote to us:

A doctor "practices" an art form. Some are good at it and others are not as good. The biggest thing that can be done is the electronic medical record. Until we can create and search a national database on outcomes and identify failed hospitals, doctors, drug interactions etc. this will continue.