Physicians realize that EHRs are inevitable. But many of them are still resisting adoption because they don't want the systems to come between them and their patients, according to a recent blog post by Adam Sharp, M.D.
In the post, he offered his take on why the adoption numbers of EHRs remain low despite the lure of incentives by the government. According to Sharp, founder of physician advocacy group Par 80, EHRs are unwieldy, expensive and inefficient; they don't improve productivity and don't necessarily lead to better outcomes.
But the real issue is that EHRs are all about controlling physicians, and physicians don't want to be controlled, he wrote. Sharp says that EHRs are come with "ulterior motives" and are "the instrument by which physicians are controlled and managed."
"The goal of EMRs is to wrestle control of healthcare away from the doctor-patient relationship into the hands of third parties who can then implement their policies by simply removing a button or an option in the EMR," he wrote.
Sharp laments that current EMR design removes treatment options, making it look like some options don't exist or causing so much "red tape" to choose certain options that physicians just won't bother to do so.
He also notes that EMRs are coming between the physician and patient just as patients, due to the increase of health savings accounts, are incentivized to compare the different treatment choices available.
To learn more:
- read Sharp's blog post
- here's some info on par80
- here's par80's website