February 2010 Archives

Recently a local hospital started touting their switch to electronic medical records. The idea is to improve efficiency, lower costs, etc. However, there's always the question of theory and practice, the design plan versus the as-built. This brought up the memory of a few examples where the practice didn't work out so well.

The first one was a hospital that for the first time in a hundred years had to turn away patients. They had a computer failure that affected their ability to access their electronic medical records. They became so backed up that they started diverting ambulances to other hospitals. The diversion wasn't terribly long and they still took walk-in patients. It is still the kind of thing that will make you think twice about your current infrastructure. I would hate to be the guy who had to explain what happened.

The other article was a mention of a Harvard study. The basic idea of the study was that there were no cost savings with electronic medical records. The idea is that in practice the costs outweigh any cost savings. The real benefit settles in on things like reducing medical errors. That of course still relies on the ability of an organization to implement a system. We all know how well large projects like that go, don't we?

Since I mentioned Toyota previously I have been informed that yes, Toyota is still perfect. In fact, it is actually Detroit's fault. They are using their political connections to persecute Toyota. I am glad I have been set straight on this. I would hate to demean a truely perfect entity like Toyota. I will never again insinuate that they are a normal corporation staffed by fallible people.

Boy the Canadians sure love their socialized medicine. They would never want to make their own decisions about their health. I wonder how long before we completely lose the idea that we're created equal and replace it with the idea that we're required to be identical.