This morning I was eating breakfast with my family and we happened to have This Week with George Stephanopoulos on the TV. He was interviewing Vice-President elect Joe Biden and I thought he mentioned spending money on electronic medical records as one way they want to stimulate the economy.
This is an excerpt taken from the transcript of the interview that can be found at http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/Story?id=6499340&page=1. Joe Biden: “You know that the Rand Corporation and other independent research groups have pointed out, if we were to put all medical records on electronic — be able to be electronically transferred, we could save, they estimate, I think it’s $78 billion a year.
But it cost money to put the entire medical industry in a position where they can put all of those records on an electronic basis. So we’re going to invest money in what they call IT, this new technology, that’s going to create jobs that are needed to make this transition.
The end result, though, the money we’re spending, we’re going to get back three- and four-fold.”
Of course it is a great thing to get everyone on electronic medical records for many reasons but is it right to take taxpayer money to accomplish it? I happen to work for an organization that has successfully implemented an electronic medical record at our own expense. Why should those organizations that chose for various reasons to hold off implementing the electronic medical record be rewarded for procrastinating by not having to pay for the implementation?
Aaron: there is a huge difference between your healthcare organization setting up electronic medical records, and Billy-Bob’s Medicine Shack setting up electronic medical records. To say that these smaller organizations are choosing to hold off on implementing electronic medical records is disengenuous (I know of physicians in rural areas that still accept livestock as a form of payment).
This shouldn’t be thought of as rewarding procrastination, but rather helping ensure that all physicians can offer their patients high quality, safe, effective, and timely care.