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Harvard Says Computers Don't Save Hospitals Money
Lucas123 writes "Researchers at Harvard Medical School pored over survey data from more than 4,000 'wired' hospitals and determined that computerization of those facilities not only didn't save them a dime, but the technology didn't improve administrative efficiency either. The study also showed most of the IT systems were aimed at improving efficiency for hospital management — not doctors, nurses, and medical technicians. 'For 45 years or so, people have been claiming computers are going to save vast amounts of money and that the payoff was just around the corner. So the first thing we need to do is stop claiming things there's no evidence for. It's based on vaporware and [hasn't been] shown to exist or shown to be true,' said Dr. David Himmelstein, the study's lead author."
Nope. The current Electronic Medical Record systems are not capable of exchanging information freely. There is no standard data format that everyone can exchange.
There are a few standards that can package data, but they are not adequately specified for seamless interoperability.
If you request records, they can print them out quickly for you though.
I work in a hospital as an interpreter, so I see a lot of how people use computers... and how they don't. Generally in the ER, the patient first sees the triage nurse, who asks a series of questions. The answers all get entered into the computer. Then the patient sees their actual nurse, who asks many of the same questions again. This information may or may not get entered in the computer. Then the PA comes in and asks the same questions a third time. This time, the information gets written on a piece of paper, or maybe a tablet computer. Eventually, the attending physician stops in just long enough to ask the same questions a fourth time, and doesn't enter the info anywhere. If the patient is admitted and sent to another department, the process starts over.
What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
"The problem "is mainly that computer systems are built for the accountants and managers and not built to help doctors, nurses and patients," the report's lead author, Dr. David Himmelstein, said in an interview with Computerworld."
The systems aren't put in help the doctors. They are put in by the non-medical managers to help their jobs. And they fail at that. A system designed for doctors with the goal of reducing error and improving care could work. But that's not what the systems are. They should start working now to have all records be electronic, X-rays, MRIs, personal history, etc. should be in formats that can be directly shared between doctors. Then processes and systems that are designed to help the medical care should be used to put that information to good use and let patience get improved care for a lower cost. But the systems are all billing systems first, and care second. And that's why they fail, and always will. Improving billing doesn't help care, and can often make it worse, as having a doctor or nurse putting in billing codes will only slow down the process.
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