government
Texas doctors embrace EHRs amid difficulties
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Oct. 22, 2012
More Texas physicians are using electronic health records despite the challenges they pose to practices, according to a survey of more than 1,700 doctors by the Texas Medical Assn.
Sixty percent of respondents said they were using the technology, compared with 43% in 2009. But as the findings emphasized, some difficulties persist in using EHRs.
More than half said they were dissatisfied with the time involved with inputting data into these records. “At the end of the day, I feel as if I spent more time putting data into an [EHR] than with my patients, which concerns me,” said Austin, Texas, surgeon David Fleeger, MD. A quarter of the physicians weren’t satisfied with the reliability of the technology, and half weren’t happy with the impact paperless records had on practice costs.
The survey noted that physicians in the state were leveraging federal stimulus funds to offset the costs of installing and maintaining their EHRs.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/10/22/gvbf1022.htm.
