It seems like from my recent post about the possible reasons Healthcare IT can’t spend $20 billion has some people thinking that it was a negative post about the funding and possibly Healthcare IT/EMR as well.

I can assure you that I am most definitely an optimist in life and EMR. I don’t think I could support and implement an EMR if I wasn’t that way. In fact, that was kind of the purpose of my post about the long term benefits of broad EMR adoption. My point in that post was to suggest that the benefits of broad EMR adoption will be incredible. Just that it’s probably hard for most of us (including myself) to see the possibilities of having an EMR in every doctor’s office.

My hope in highlighting the possible challenges is to hopefully provide a platform for a larger discussion of the issues associated with this unprecedented investment in health care. In fact, I’d say that one of my main goals with this blog is to provide those interested in EMR points to consider when implementing an EMR. I believe information and discussion is powerful and I hope that I’ve helped to make that discussion and information sharing to happen.

What is certain is that I’m very optimistic that we’ll get to broad EMR adoption. It’s inevitable. I’ve met a lot of students in medical schools and they can’t understand why every doctor doesn’t use an EMR. This digital generation of students are digital natives. It’s all they’ve known. Once they finally start entering the marketplace in droves we’re going to see a huge shift in EMR adoption and I believe far fewer failures in the process (along with other reasons).

In fact, it makes me wonder if the reason health care has been slower than almost every other industry to adopt technology is because doctors spend so long in school. These digital natives have just begun entering the health care workforce and so they’re impact hasn’t been felt yet. Just a theory, but at least interesting to consider.

I think it’s reasonable to consider some of the reasons why health care IT won’t be able or willing to have $20 billion of government money invested in health care IT.

Not Enough Healthcare IT Professionals – It’s been widely suggested that the number of health care IT professionals might not be sufficient to support this type of invesment in health care IT.  I hope my fellow IT professionals from every field can easily make the transition to health care IT.  Certainly many will without a problem.  However, the question remains if enough will be able to do so.

Other Reasons Not to Adopt EMR – I’m certain that a study on why doctors haven’t implemented an EMR yet would not show money as the main factor preventing adoption of EMR.  There are many other reasons a doctor chooses not to implement EMR and money isn’t going to resolve those concerns.

CCHIT Requirement – Of course, this assumes that the government chooses to make CCHIT a requirement for receiving funds.  Doing so will limit the choices a doctor has in selecting an EMR.  I think it’s very likely that many doctors will forgoe government funding in order to use a non CCHIT EMR.  This could be especially true for specialists who would rather select a non CCHIT certified EMR that focuses on their specialties needs.

Paperwork Required – The government won’t just be going around handing people checks.  We’ll have to wait and see how much paperwork and reporting will be required to obtain these government funds, but many doctors will shun the paperwork and beuracracy associated with receiving the government funds.

EMR Vendor Selection Process – With over 400 EMR companies to choose from, it will take doctors some time to decide which EMR they like best.  Even if you narrow the list of EMR companies to CCHIT certified companies, you’re still looking at a lengthy evaluation process.  Most doctors want to practice medicine not learn about software.  So, evaluating EMR software often gets pushed down on their list of things to do.

We’ve all seen or heard it said that it’s harder to spend $20 billion than you would think.  This couldn’t be more true when it comes to investment in health care IT and electronic medical records.  Let me know in the comments if there were any other reasons I might have missed on why the spending in health care IT might not occur.