Healthcare IT News Associate Editor Molly Merrill wrote a July 26 piece on the five worst EMR myths. Over the past month, there's been debate and discussion surrounding the list, via our social media outlets and in our reader comments posted on the Healthcare IT News site.
Here are the five misconceptions Merrill included:
1. EMRs are bad for "bedside manner"
2. You can't teach old doctors new tricks
3. Only hospitals use EMRs
4. Having my data storied in an EMR is a security risk
5. EMRs are expensive
While some readers agreed with the list, others were quick to point out omissions.
"One myth I'd like to debunk is that EMRs are 'everything a hospital needs.'" Wrote Don Jarrell, president of Prista Corporation. "We frequently hear people believe they should wait for their EMR provider to deliver such functionality. That is simply a classic example of playing IT FUD -- fear, uncertainly and doubt to freeze purchase decisions that cannot go in a vendor's direction."
Another user, Caroline Poplin, MD, refuted one of the myths, saying that EMRs are in fact bad for bedside manner. "I worked as a primary care physician in a large hospital," she started. We were required to use a rather clunky EHR. There were many complaints from patients that the doctor looked at the computer, not at them."
To Poplin and other commenters, the quality of care is degraded when the physician is not directly looking at them. They feel unimportant, while some believe it's a waste of time and money.
"The templates provide far less useful information than my old handwritten notes did," Poplin explained. According to her, she could take notes while also looking at the patient, attentively.
"Having been in healthcare 44 years and recorded data in all manners including EMRs of renown, I can tell you that docs are concentrated on the EMR/EHR format and not the patient's eyes or listening well nor touching patients as frequently," stated Robert Foster, MD.
There is fear that many years of integrative learning a doctor undergoes will eventually be unlearned by the technology, according to Foster. Most of that, he remarked, was due to specific boxes being checked for payment purposes.
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