electronic medical records

At my Nov. 2011 post "Lifespan (Rhode Island): Yet another health IT glitch affecting thousands - that, of course, caused no patient harm that they know of - yet" I wrote:

Stunning.

Two websites dedicated by patients to a physician in Illinois under fire essentially because he's "too slow" with an EMR:

In Support of Dr.

Steven Kottemann
Testimonials submitted by the patients of Dr. Steven Kottemann, Lincoln, Illinois

This story is tragic and appalling:

Lincoln doctor, Memorial Health clash over electronic records
By DEAN OLSEN
The State Journal-Register
Posted Oct 19, 2011 @ 11:00 PM
Last update Oct 20, 2011 @ 06:37 AM

I've taken so much flak over the years for being an anti-EHR "zealot" or similar canards that I am simply posting a link to this essay by Virginia L.

Hood, MBBS, MPH, FACP, President of the American College Of Physicians (ACP) with only one comment:

Electronic Medical Records have Yet to Fill Their Potential

The hospital where my mother was injured has still refused to substantively answer EMR-related questions, after a motion by my mother's attorney to compel discovery.

I am increasingly hearing stories of alleged alterations occurring in electronic medical records.

Since there is no permanent paper record in an increasing number of facilities, some might believe digital alterations might be easier to get away with.

(University of Chicago Press Journals) Expanded use of electronic medical records would substantially reduce infant mortality in the US, according to a study forthcoming in the Journal of Political Economy.

There are many parallels between the health IT sector, with known injuries and deaths, lack of regulatory enforcement, and willfull blindness by vendors and purchasers to the dangers of the devices, and this story:

Swimming pool maker pleads guilty to criminally negligent homicide

At my Mar. 27, 2011 post "Those Who Dismiss Healthcare (and Healthcare IT) Adverse Events Reports as Mere "Anecdotes" Have Lost - Supreme Court-Style" I wrote that the SCOTUS decided in MATRIXX INITIATIVES, INC., ET AL. v.

SIRACUSANO ET AL. (link to PDF) that:

Electronic medical records in the pioneering years were about helping clinicians better understand a patient. They were about easing the clinicians' work in evaluating and caring for a patient, or in performing a consult on a patient being cared for by a colleague.

The commercial electronic medical record is another beast entirely.