This is what Dumb Looks Like

The poster tells the story behind the photo: “This is a printout of a patient’s medical record, sent from one office to another as the patient was changing primary care providers. An EHR was in place in both offices. Additionally, the EHR in both offices was created by the same vendor (a major vendor); each health organization had a customized version. Without base standards the systems are incompatible. Instead, the printouts had to be scanned into the new record, making them less searchable and less useful.”

The tech world calls this “digitizing paper processes.”  The Army calls this FUBAR.  Regardless of your preferred observation, it’s clear that EMR/EHRs are not yet delivering on their promise.  In our Star Ratings practice, we have seen plans and providers struggle with creating Atul Gawande-style checklists that can be tied to a patient record as a paper list might be paper-clipped to a physical record (“Advise on smoking cessation? Check.  Flu shot given?  Check.).  And while we’re not going back to paper, the undelivered-promise almost makes one nostalgic for paper itself, one of humankind’s top 5* inventions: It’s cheap, it doesn’t need to be upgraded, it doesn’t crash and it best facilitates open, creative thinking by allowing the user to move seamlessly between writing and drawing.

*My other 4 are the wheel, the drum, clean running water and fermented beverages.  Fire doesn’t count because it was a discovery, as was electricity.