Few Doctors Using Electronic Systems For Patient Records
June 19th, 2008 | by admin |
A study finds that most doctors are not taking very well to keeping their patient records electronically due to the cost that is involved with doing so.
The survey was carried out by the Massacshuetts General Hospital’s Institute for Health Policy, and featured more than 3,000 practicing doctors from across the United States.
“When you use a good definition of what a record system is, very few physicians appear to have one,” said lead study author Catherine M. DesRoches, at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Institute for Health Policy, in Boston.
The majority of doctors surveyed were still keeping physical patient records opposed to electronic record keeping, with only 17% of them actually using electronic methods to keep patient data.
42% of respondents did say that they were in the process of, or planned to switch to electronic record keeping within 2 years.
The findings are set to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and show that more needs to be done to educate practicing doctors as to the many advantages that are present with electronic file storage.
