[dbussone]

Originally Posted by golfing eagles

Trust me, after 34 years practicing medicine, those "problems" were ten times greater with paper records. Just the legibility factor saves thousands of errors. Electronic prescribing eliminates the pharmacist's guess as to what is written on a Rx, physician order entry in hospitals eliminates errors by a unit secretary or nurse, discharge instructions are clearly printed, and office records a legible and easily sent to other physicians. In a lot of ways I also long for "the good old days" in medicine, but electronic records are one aspect that is a clear no-brainer

After 40 years of running hospitals and hospital systems I can agree on the benefits you note. However, the loss of medical information has increased dramatically with the figuration and storage of data. I can recall several years ago when a transcription company using workers in Pakistan was held hostage for payment when the workers started posting patient records on the Internet. And every smart device that connects to your medical record system or a hospital's is subject to theft and abuse with patient data retained on that device. Copy/scanning machines now have their own hard drives. When the lease is up a new one is rolled into the facility and the old one is rolled out- chock full of data. Believe me i have seen it all and then some.