An electronic medical records mess

Electronic health records were once touted as a turning point in U.S. health care, expected to revolutionize recordkeeping on patient histories and reduce the potential for medical errors. I hope that someday they will. But as the Affordable Care Act launches and, presumably, more Americans seek treatment, there is no standard system nationwide, and entry errors and inconsistencies are becoming common.

...It’s hard not to think much confusion and duplication could have been avoided if policymakers had involved providers in every step of the transition.

The Veterans Affairs is often criticized, but one thing for which it deserves praise is its award-winning electronic health records system. Deployed throughout the VA system in the late 1990s, the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture, known as VistA, is an integrated in-patient/out-patient, pharmacy and data management program. By some estimates, more than 60 percent of U.S. physicians have used VistA at some point during their training.

Had information technology companies been incentivized to make VistA compatible with billing systems, our country might have an efficient and robust clinical system that practitioners nationwide would know how to use. The only potential downside: Fewer government dollars for tech companies and their consultants...