Most people are surprised to learn that more than half of small medical practices are still using handwritten paper charts to collect and store demographic and clinical information about patients. Although every medical office has computers, many doctors never touch them.
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Other professions have adopted technology to help staff work more productively and achieve higher levels of quality in their work; the same can be true for the medical profession. Today’s practicing clinician is most concerned with understanding the effect paper charts have on quality in the medical office, obstacles to electronic chart adoption, and how implementing electronic health record (EHR) systems can improve the healthcare experience for clinicians, office staff, and patients.
Paper’s role in quality care
Think about all the ways that illegible handwritten documents can negatively affect the quality of healthcare services. Between patient charts, insurance documents, and the paperwork involved with running a small business, a medical practice produces a steady influx of hard copies.
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Comments
Why is What ?
That's the crucial question that no EHR - or whatsoever ER - system will ever answer. For some reasons, I've had to do with some different health organizations in the last few months, all of them coordinated by the EU: some of them are computer-maniac, some others are computer-hostile. Why is it so? Where's the difference? Some of them only accept fax copies and don't know that some things like scanners and e-mail even exist, some others don't want fax copies. Certainly "paper isn't the problem, but it's the vehicle for blame"; and - as any vehicle - once fully EHRized, health organizations will be blamed for this vehicle, too. Thank you.
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