Surgeon General, R. Benjamin
Dr Regina Benjamin, Surgeon General, encouraged all conference attendees to take care of themselves and to be in control of their own health. She relayed a personal story of how 2 hurricanes and 1 fire in her private family practice drove her to her first EHR. She tells all conference attendees, “Now is the time – with incentives - to get one [EHR]; we can’t afford not to!”
Need for Patient Record Integrity & Longevity
Dr. Regina Benjamin also displayed a photo of her burnt medical records. The photo illustrates one of the key incentives for the move to EMR/EHR systems – patient record integrity/longevity. Her personal stories make the need for converting to EMR/EHR more real and more immediate. Dr. Benjamin commented that the hardest changes lie inside medical communities themselves. Once that gap is bridged, it’s not that difficult to learn these systems. It will take “education and time” to make the transition.
Polarity is still an issue in EMR adoption. We cannot solve polarity, only manage it. Understanding and address each will drive the process to successful implementation faster.
February 23, 2011 at 1:13 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Don Moore, MackWorks. MackWorks said: @ #HIMSS 11 – #Surgeon_General Dr. Regina Benjamin and advancing the case for #EMR #EHR: http://ow.ly/421wv [...]