Physicians are spending $1 Billon per day on this?!

Across the United States, health care providers are helping to spend the equivalent of the entire U.S primary and secondary education budget.

Question: What are they allocating this fortune to?

Answer: Maintaining patient records electronically.

Reaction: Are you kidding me? Unfortunately, I am not. Physicians are spending over half of their working hours logging patient visits, updating patient portals, and submitting notes to or, on the behalf of, their patients.

The HITECH Act, passed in 2009, made it mandatory for all health care providers to keep Electronic Health Records (EHRs) for all of their patients. Let me assure you- this is a very good thing. Patient records need to be filed electronically in order to reduce inconsistencies, streamline the diagnosis process, and to make it possible for patient records to be transferred from one health care provider to another. If you take a moment to think about the amount of work involved in transferring a patient record from a primary care physician to a specialist, for example, you will conclude that it is much faster, cheaper, and easier to do when the record is electronic versus on paper.

So, what is the issue? If EHRs are so good, why are they taking so much time and money to process? How do we stop the…