Federal Officials Tout Benefits of Electronic Records

Federal health officials recently said that expanded nationwide use of health information technology (HIT) by physicians and medical facilities is critical to improving patient care and controlling spiraling health care costs. They expect a massive federal funding program to spur widespread adoption of such electronic record systems by physicians, whose resistance has limited the use of such systems.

Widespread adoption of HIT, including electronic medical records (EMRs), will spur improvements in acute care, chronic care, and preventive care, according to David Blumenthal, M.D., national coordinator for health information technology at the Department of Health and Human Services.

During an online briefing in August, Blumenthal discussed his experience with HIT systems in private practice during the last 10 years. He credited HIT with preventing the loss of notes and records that can occur with paper documents, as well as with reducing inefficiencies. For example, he said, physicians who treat older patients—who are more likely to receive care from multiple clinicians—would benefit from a unified electronic record that would note whether the patient already had undergone a needed test. Similarly, HIT systems could facilitate better care coordination among physicians and alert them if they are about to prescribe medications that conflict with those prescribed by other clinicians.

“It is important for clinicians to be able to share information,” Blumenthal emphasized.

In addition, said Mary Wakefield, R.N., administrator of the government's Health Resources and Services Administration, improved care coordination facilitated by expanded use of HIT should help control health care costs, which have grown to 17 percent of the U.S. economy. Better information exchange between clinicians will help detect serious illness at an earlier stage and allow treatment before conditions advance and more costly treatments are needed.

The push by federal officials to urge broad physician adoption of HIT systems seeks to overcome long-standing clinician resistance to them on the basis of cost concerns and their ability to protect the privacy of patient information.

Only about 12 percent of physicians have adopted HIT systems, according to a 2008 Congressional Budget Office report. Another study, published on July 3, 2008, in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that only 4 percent of physicians had adopted fully functional EMRs, and those who had tended to be in larger practices (Psychiatric News, August 1, 2008).