When I go to the doctor now he spends his time staring at his laptop screen, asking required questions, and typing my answers. He used to be a sharp, intuitive physician full of good advice and now he seldom even looks at me. In the days when we used to actually interact, he expressed his extreme dislike of Obamacare. None of these changes represent improvements in patient care. Big surprise.

At this Med Center an electronic record system was rushed into "service" to met a deadline for millions of dollars in subsidies. Chaos ensued and the system remains a monumental PITA, and more importantly , a significant distraction from patient care. I´m pretty sure the providers of these systems have been generous to Obambi Dumbo.

I agree with #1, the Doctor now spends so much time staring at the laptop, he doesn´t even listen to me anymore.

He even jokes about it saying: "I used to be a better Doctor before I became a Data Entry Clerk"

Of course, obama´s GE buddies obtain a wad of corporate welfare from this scam. But the real issue is control. It´s mostly about control.

Yes, but don´t forget. Doing a complete physical is so much quicker. The computer does it without even taking your clothes off or using a stethoscope! (this intended to be sarcastic, but it is a fact!)

shocking...
rahm´s brother...
loss of privacy and no benefit...
who could have seen that coming?
democrats are such liars.

I thought the privacy laws were still in effect, mostly to protect under-age girls getting abortions from their parents.

I had a medical procedure last year. The check in woman asked me all sorts of questions that my primary care physician already had on record. She said she had to go through all this stuff because they can´t access my records.

As a physician with expertise in electronic medical records (EMR’s) I can assure you that they were never intended or expected to lower costs. They were intended to federalize your medical history and your doctor’s practice information. They have not lowered costs or improved efficiency, quite the opposite, but they have opened the portal for government perusal of your private health information, despite HIPPA protections, by the way.

It will get better when they works the kinks out of obamacare......

As a health care provider using an electronic medical record program in my office since 2007, I can guarantee you that my productivity has decreased. I can´t see as many patients as before when I scribbled perfectly good records.

Posters 4 and 8 are quite correct. The health control bill (a.k.a "Obamacare") mandates all providers use these systems by 2014. It´s yet another example of Chronie Capitalism providing huge payoffs to the makers of these systems, most of whom are well connected politically. But more than that the law demands these systems be standardized and interoperable so that your entire medical history can be accessed anywhere, anytime, by almost anybody including the government. The potential for abuse is huge. For example, they fully intend to "study" the data to find evidence that preferred groups such as Blacks and Homosexuals are being underserved. The next step will be to demand care providers meet racial and gender quotas or face penalties. I happen to work on these developing these systems and the government stipulated requirements include being able to generate such reports.

Doctors now spend their time looking at the screen and keying data, after taking your credit card number. That may be good, because the next time you come, you get another doctor, who says he can´t find anything. Not that there is nothing. No, the qualification is that he "can´t find anything". Shouldn´t that be cheaper, as your problem is left unresolved, and you have received no value? No, it is not.

Isn´t all of this personal information funneled & processed through just one company? Is this actually another BIG Government monopoly?

#8´s post about the purpose of EMR´s nails it, and goes to the heart of a discussion I had with my doctor on the subject in 2008.

Any physician could have told you digital health records improve NOTHING.

Most "health care providers" (that term is used to blur the distinction between you actually seeing an MD, versus some one else, and to reduce the prestige of MD´s) spend more time with the computer than with the patient.

Electronic records allow bean-counters to "assess" the "quality" of care people get, by documenting how many "quality indicators" have been "checked". As to whether your actual condition has been appropriately diagnosed and treated...well that´s to complicated to measure, so they don´t really measure that....

I have looked at electronic medical records, and been unable to actually tell why the patient saw that doctor, of what the doctor actually thought the problem was. E-records are simply hideous.

computers have turned physicians and nurses into secretaries...expensive secretaries.

They took a photo of me for my EMR at my eye Dr.´s no less. And yes, it´s all about centralizing your personal info for the government. I was an insurance fraud investigator for years with subpoena power. Even when we got someone´s records you still had to decipher the Dr.´s writing to see what was in the record, now it´s all there in black & white including your photo. ....and I´m guessing with a single subpoena, one would be able to get someone´s entire history from all providers for the "big picture" if you know what I mean. I have no problem with this if there is a valid investigative purpose, but this EMR is ripe for abuse.