“Human Factors Can Assist with Appropriate Implementation of Health Information Technology“

I think they did a correlation between electronic systems and mortality for the hospitals in the study, using the mortality rate during the time they sampled. They didn’t compare mortality to previous rates at those hospitals before the introduction of electronic record keeping.

We could test Rich’s hypothesis that it is the focus on safety by looking only at hospitals who have used the E-records for a number of years already. Another alternative hypothesis is that hospitals able to purchase such systems are likely to be wealthier, which might relate to reduced mortality.

Or hey, what might really be great is that E-records are already awesome and we can work out more of the kinks and live longer.

I had a dr appt yesterday & asked the dr about EHR. He is on the verge of buying a system & has major concerns. He did comment that the sales rep assured him the system was user-friendly…And, the dr has concerns about the backend not being compatible w/ whatever standards are developed. He has hopes of him & his office mgr becoming power users who can help the others so as not to rely on the co many’s training.

Anyway, the risks are high if we do not get involved, build awareness and infuse ourselves into anything e-health related. Question is how. I’ve looked at several openings w/ a local software company and each position requires experience in the medical field. They need to understand how we can be involved and what a difference we can make.