Study: Current EMRs don't have measurable impact on cost or quality

In news that isn't exactly going to help convince the holdouts of the benefits of health IT, electronic medical records so far have had a marginal effect on quality and cost of care, according to a new study.

Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, who are presenting their findings today, studied health IT adoption at 3,000 hospitals as part of a follow-up to a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report from earlier this year, and found little differences in adherence to best practices, no matter if a hospital had an advanced EMR, a basic EMR or traditional paper records. "The way electronic medical records are used now has not yet had a real impact on the quality or cost of healthcare," lead researcher Dr. Ashish K. Jha told the New York Times.

"There will be no clear answers on the overall payoff from the wider use of electronic health records until we get further along, five years or more," said Dr. Karen Bell, senior vice president for health IT services at quality improvement advocacy organization Masspro and a former assistant national coordinator in the federal Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. "But that doesn't mean we shouldn't go forward."

Bell believes the study highlights the need for government policies that help healthcare providers make better use of technology.

To learn more:
- read this New York Times story [1]