Assessing electronic records
Well, do electronic health records (EHRs) improve healthcare performance or don’t they? Several early large studies of the effect of electronic records on ambulatory care have been inconclusive.
A group of five researchers this past October published a thorough study of ambulatory practices in the Hudson Valley, comparing the performance for nine quality measures of 204 doctors using electronic records with that of 262 using paper systems. For five of the nine quality measures, they found a positive association between EHRs and ambulatory quality in a community-based setting. EHR use brought a higher quality of care.
Though evaluation of single studies is always difficult, this one was sufficiently rigorous that it was published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Since the data was gathered, the proportion of Hudson Valley physicians to have adopted EHRs has increased to over 90 per cent.
Information technology
May 6 will be a big day for John Finch, chief information and community officer for HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley (HAHV). It is the day he hopes to finish implementation of the McKesson computer software systems that will meet the first-stage “meaningful-use” standards of the federal government. July 1 is the actual deadline when the system “goes live.” Successful implementation of the new software will make HAHV eligible for $12 million in federal reimbursement, payable over the next four years.
