July 1, 2010

Docs blast record plan

Technology isn’t there, they say

By Keri Brenner
The Chronicle

     Electronic medical records are a great idea, but installing them up with flawed software and poor technical help is a costly nightmare, area healthcare providers said Wednesday.
     “Why, at this time, are we trying to push forward a system that is not ready for prime time?” said Paul T. Armerding, M.D., medical director for physicians working at Mid-Columbia Medical Center in The Dalles. “Why can’t we wait three to five years to work through the bugs, instead of pushing them on physicians who are actually trying to see patients?”
     Armerding was one of about 50 people at a public meeting Wednesday at Water’s Edge, a new medical wellness facility in The Dalles. Wednesday’s meeting was the second of five regional public comment opportunities statewide set by the Health Information and Technology Oversight Committee.
     HITOC is an agency coordinating the state medical community’s adoption of electronic medical recordkeeping. Carol Robinson, HITOC director and moderator for Wednesday’s meeting, said the state needs to put the system in place by 2015 to comply with federal and state health reform legislation. Oregon has received $8.5 million in federal subsidies to set up a process to install the electronic medical records system, she said.
     “We intend to change the system of healthcare, and, out of that, we intend to improve the health of Oregonians,” Robinson said. “Whether you’re in the Columbia Gorge or in Heppner or out at the Coast, we want you to have the same opportunities to share electronic medical records as they do in the metro areas.”
     But area providers say they cannot afford the time or frustration it takes to train their staff to deal with new records software or to deal with the imperfections.
     “I’m increasingly concerned that our records databases are being filled up with meaningless data that is camouflaged as useful data,” said David Mack, D.O., of Columbia River Women’s Clinic in The Dalles. “In trying to have uniformity, everybody [in different health disciplines] wants their piece of the pie, so you get this thick document that is useless.”
     Mack and Gretchen Rittagen, R.N. of Hospice of the Gorge, said they needed more help in selecting a software vendor who provided training and tech support.
“We’re looking at 14 to 16 hours of uncompensated time for our staff to put in electronic records,” Rittagen said. “I don’t have the staff to do that, or the budget.”
     Chip Taylor, M.D., medical director of HITOC’s information technology division, told the group that he understood their frustrations. Ultimately, the electronic records should make up the costs in time savings to practitioners, but meanwhile, Taylor said, his agency will try to help.
     “We need to get past these challenges,” Taylor said. His agency, called O-Health Information Technology Extension Center, can be reached at (503) 943-2617 or www.o-hitec.org.
     Other concerns were raised by Teri Thalhofer, director of the North Central Public Health District. Thalhofer said there was a lack of public health representation in the state panel.
     “Local public health is a big part of this, but I’m concerned we are not represented,” she said.
     Robinson said her organization sought out public health personnel to get involved and did sign on at least one professional to participate.
     Robinson said Oregon’s medical community was one of the highest level of statewide adopters of the new technology. More than 65 percent of practitioners statewide have some level of electronic records, compared to a national average of only 20 to 25 percent, she said.