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5 responses to "Benefits from EMR Come from Interoperability"

1. # Russ Reese commented on December 11th, 2009:

   RE: “EMRs don’t save money in standalone situations…”. Then something is wrong. Automation should be part of every EMR and automation should save money.

   I have noticed a few people responding to the recent report that said that there was no evidence that EMRs saved money by saying that the savings are longer term, but if I recall, the study looked at some installations that were 4 years old and still no savings.

   IMO, the EMR community should use this report as an opportunity to figure what we’re doing wrong instead of trying to defend the status quo.

   EMR as a whole is a failure (based on low adoption rates). It’s yet to be seen if financial incentives can turn that failure around – IMO it won’t because up front costs are only one of the problems with most EMRs and the incentives only address that one problem.

2. # John commented on December 11th, 2009:

   Russ,
   Nice point. I skimmed over that part of it as I focused on the under appreciated benefits of EMR interoperability. I actually do think there are benefits and even cost savings/revenue generation that comes from an EMR implementation. Thus, my link to those benefits at the end of the article. However, I think most users also under value what can be done and benefited from long term in regards to interoperability.

   However, I do think that EMR vendors need to focus more on achieving the right ROI for their clients and doctors/practice managers/etc should spend more time finding and supporting those EMR vendors who are able to achieve those results.

3. # Russ Reese commented on December 17th, 2009:

   Here is a link to a study that showed some positive results for EMR use – http://jamia.bmj.com/content/17/1/78.full

   “Conclusions: A basic CPOE system in a community setting was associated with a significant reduction in medication errors of most types and severity levels.”

   Note, this study is about CPOE which is not featured in all EMRs and I think that HIMMS has even been trying to get HHS to back off on making CPOE required for the stimulus $.

   But here is real data that shows real benefits. This study is about error rates and not dollars – but if errors are reduced then lawsuits are reduced and hopefully malpractice insurance premiums follow.

   IMO, we never needed the tax payer funded stimulus to begin with. Malpractice insurance companies should offer radically reduced rates to physicians that use CPOE and that would be all the “stimulus” that is needed to move doctors toward EHR.

4. # John commented on December 17th, 2009:

   Interesting analysis Russ. I’m going to post your comment as a separate post and see how people react.

5. # Benefits of CPOE in an EMR | EMR and HIPAA pingbacked on December 18th, 2009:

   [...] my previous post about the benefits of inter operable EMR software, Russ Reese left the following comment about the benefits of CPOE and whether CPOE will make it [...]