Health Care News
Switching to electronic medical records has its pitfalls
Mar/03/2010
Healthcare IT News 
A new story written by Emma Schwartz from the Huffington Post Investigative Fund reported on many doctors’ growing frustration with the switch from paper to electronic medical records, according to Healthcare IT News. In a time when health policy makers are pushing for a shift to electronic records, Schwartz believes that it is necessary to highlight some of the potential pitfalls.
Making the switch to electronic records requires a significant investment, and can be complicated and confusing for doctors who are used to having everything on paper. Many providers are unfamiliar with the complex systems and don’t know what questions to ask when shopping for software programs.
There is a lot of risk involved in making a purchase in an emerging market where there is little data on past performance. Some physicians have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into software programs that later proved to be defective. In extreme cases, manufacturers of faulty software have gone bankrupt, leaving doctors with no choice but to file lawsuits in order to get their money back.