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Behind the Digital Door

Catherine Kolonko  |  Issue: April 2011  |  

While Dr. Carson is confident his EHR system can handle the electronic patient summary, he doesn’t know what method he would use to deliver it to the patient. “If it means that I’m going to print out a piece of paper with the summary, why do I have an electronic chart now?” asks Dr. Carson.

On the other hand, giving patients some form of an electronic summary assumes everyone has a computer and knows how to use one, says Dr. Carson who also worries about the security of patient information traveling through the Internet’s digital highway.

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Despite some philosophical differences with the government’s digital efforts, Dr. Carson seems better poised than many to participate. His office converted to electronic records years ago, instituted a task force dedicated to “meaningful use” issues, and has a well-trained staff familiar with the required data collection and reporting.

“We’re going through the core objectives one at a time and seeing where we are compliant and where we’re not compliant,” says Dr. Carson.

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Dr. Geppert’s practice is in the process of upgrading computer software to get it certified for meaningful use. He also expects to spend between $10,000 to $15,000—a cost shared among the 10 physicians in his practice—to upgrade the computer server.

Despite the frustrations, Dr. Geppert views the federal program as beneficial and believes that software companies who want to stay competitive will do more in the future to help meet meaningful use requirements.

“I’ve been using a computer for 15 years to write my notes, so to me the good side of this is that they are going to force some of this stuff to happen,” says Dr. Geppert. “There will be some unhappy parts of it as well. There will be some parts that will be difficult for us.”

Catherine Kolonko is a medical writer based in California.

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