Are EMRs Ready for Primary Care?

I thought I was the only one thinking like this, but I'm happy to see that I'm not so alone. Shahid N. Shah at the The Healthcare IT Guy found this article in HealthcareITNews:

"When you put an EMR into a primary care practice, your life is hell for the next year," said L. Gordon Moore, MD. "EMR vendors aren't really giving us what we need. We have to make a distinction between a robust EMR with decision support tools, and one that is just being marketed as a way to improve coding. And we really need to get out of the E&M coding game."

I couldn't agree more completely with this sentiment. Getting IT support for delivering care rather than just for generating bills is the critical missing link in most EMRs. Even the ones with "decision-support modules" don't really do all that can be done to make life better for physicians (as Moore emphasizes) and (even more important) patients.

Ben