Med Mal News

The Rand Corporation, the health policy research company, disclosed on Jan. 7 that research indicates the anticipated cost-savings associated with the implementation of electronic medical record-keeping have not materialized. Rand's 2005 projections of huge cost-savings, better efficiency and improved patient care have not come to pass, according to Rand's researchers, not because the ideas behind the push for electronic record-keeping were flawed, but because the information technology systems now being used are not optimal. Rand suggests that: 1) Electronic health records be made more universally accessible to medical providers, even those in other health care systems than the ones storing the records; 2) Patients be able to access their own records (similar to how they access their bank account information) and be able to share them with different providers; and 3) Record-keeping systems be made more user-friendly, so that health care providers can use them with little training.