I've got some doc friends who really hate the electronic file provisions in PPACA, and their complaints range from a simple aversion to something so new, to the prohibitive costs of this software, to the inefficiency they see in the inputting of patient information.
Some of this is unavoidable, of course, given the laws for privacy and the many different styles that doctors have in their notations, and also given a very human aversion to change, particularly when that change is being forced upon you.
There is a way to make this better, though.
My own doctor was groaning about the cost of his software and the dozens of screens and clicks and seemingly hidden menus on the software. Anyone who plays computer games understands that a lot of this is simple unfamiliarity with the UI (user interface) and the screen controls.
I have to admit, after looking at one of these "programs," I feel like I've been thrown back to DOS.
Yikes, really? In the age of Apple, Blizzard, Bethesda, Sony and so many others, we're using THIS type of technology and interface for medical recording?
The UI designers at Blizzard or 38 Studios or any other gaming company would vomit a little bit in their mouths if they ever glanced at these screens, as I'm sure the doctors, nurses or office folks inputting the data hour after hour do so repeatedly.
A little creativity could turn the drudgery of this task into something far more pleasant, and far more accurate and helpful to those needing those records in the future.
Why not use an avatar for each patient? Why not tailor the programs for the specialists, trimming the vast array of potential data fields (in the top menus) to those pertinent to a specialty?
If the federal government put a handful of GI docs in a room with the folks from Blizzard for a couple of days, they'd come out with a program that looked like a computer game and walked through a logical system for inputting instead of a system that requires 9,000 number codes and retyping procedures a thousand times.
Fixing this cumbersome (and scary) issue would go a long way toward getting the docs on board with PPACA to a much higher level than they are now. And getting the docs to accept PPACA is critical to getting the patients to understand the benefits of the new law. A rec-listed diary today recounts the personal story of one Kossack whose doctor lauded Obamacare when proscribing preventative tests. But, given human nature, doctors who are frustrated and/or feel threatened by having things like electronic data input thrust upon them would be far less likely to sing the praises of Obamacare.
One primary care doctor told me that he had to join a group (he didn't want to, but had to) because he simply couldn't afford the software. I don't know if this is true or not, but if it is, shame on the system. There's no excuse for this that I can see. The cost of making a single player game, which involves vast arrays of data files, interconnected systems and appealing graphics, is around $20-30 million. Peanuts when we're talking about the scale of medical expenses and the sheer number of people who will be utilizing such a system as medical electronic inputting. What I fear is going on here is a few software companies gouging and making things more difficult than they need to be in order to make hospitals/doctors dependent on them.
Someone please explain to me why this process has to be so cumbersome.