3 May
2012

Posted in: Health Care
By Suzanne    No Comments

Is Healthcare Information Technology Really a Silver Bullet?

This morning, when I woke up, I called a good friend and colleague to find out about a project we are working on.  Before I could even broach the subject, she told me she’d just had a terrible morning.  Why, I asked.  She’d just gone to see her gynecologist and went in an hour early for her appointment to get some blood work done.  The secretary told her to come in at 8 am to do the blood draw.  She dutifully arrived only to be told that, in fact, the person who does the blood draws only comes in at nine.  Glitch number one.

But that was okay, she was told, because the health care system was updating its computers and introducing all sorts of electronic wizardry (healthcare information technology (HIT) — the kind the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) has supported and which promises to protect patients from all manner of frightening medical errors and injuries.  Because she was early for her appointment with the doctor, she could take the time to fill out a bunch of forms that would provide critical information that would be entered into the computer and would help physicians and nurses etc make better judgments.  (Obviously, I added the nurses here because no one in health care would ever talk about anyone on the team other than physicians).  Fine, my colleague thought, I’ll be glad to fill out all your forms. Read more >>