The switch from paper to medical electronic records was supposed to make life easier for doctors. Medicine was going to become more streamlined. Doctors could see more patients and could collaborate more on their care.
But so far, many physicians say the shift has only made doctoring more complicated. They spend more time clicking boxes on computer screens and less time face-to-face with patients. There’s more busywork, they say.
Dr. Joseph Huffstutter, a rheumatologist with Arthritis Associates in Hixson, says he doesn’t feel comfortable bringing a computer into the patient room.
“So many things in medicine deal with nonverbal cues and facial expressions that I’m afraid I’ll miss if I’m looking at a computer,” he said.
But the most frustrating component of electronic systems, doctors and health industry experts say, is that often one doctor’s software isn’t able to communicate with another doctors’ software — defeating the point of collaborative care.