Blogs

With the HITECH Act, the role of the medical record is being further stretched to serve as data repository for quality reporting, clinical studies, public health surveillance and more. The problem is that many electronic medical records systems are replacing the narrative note with computer-generated notes that, while useful for creating a data repository, are far less useful for supporting patient care. 
 

Are we losing sight of the primary purpose of a patient medical record, which is to support patient care?

Narrative notes serve several purposes by helping physicians and other caregivers:

The ‘gold rush’ of Electronic Health Records is on. Or so says every major media outlet and President/CEO of a healthcare vendor. Now is the time that America will finally get electronic health records that will catapult this country into the future of healthcare delivery. Or is it?

I was recently admonished by a high-level healthcare industry consultant that “...times have changed and there is no place for the archaic practice of narrative notes in the future of healthcare delivery.

Did you know MD-IT’s original business plan from ten years ago sought to eliminate transcription and replace it with technology?  We found out it wasn’t such a great idea.  That is why we are such vocal proponents today of dictation and transcription as part of the future of electronic medical records.

MD-IT started in 2000 as a software company selling front-end speech recognition combined with basic EMR functionality.  Here’s an excerpt from an early business plan:

Physicians use one of three methods for documenting care: dictation, structured data entry (keyboard, touch screen, mouse), or front-end speech recognition.  In our experience and that of many EMR vendors, dictation is the preferred choice of 80% of doctors.  Why?

No real surprises from the Medical Group Management Association’s (MGMA) annual survey of medical practice administrators. Their top issue is managing the bottom line in a tough economy.

Welcome to our new website and our blog, both of which reflect the rapidly changing environment of healthcare IT and our company’s role in facilitating that change.  We hope that we have created a forum through which you can become better-informed and participate in the community discussion about the emerging role of healthcare IT.