(2009-11-15) Little Emr Benefit

Steve Lohr reports on a study finding little benefit in hospital EMR use. Most of the evidence for gains from the technology, Dr. Jha said, has come from looking at an elite group of large, high-performing health providers that have spent years adapting their practices to the technology. The group usually includes KaiserPermanente, the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic and Intermountain Healthcare, among others. But the new study, led by Dr. Jha and Catherine M. DesRoches of Massachusetts General Hospital, suggests that these exceptions mostly point to the long-term potential of electronic health records, properly used. Hmm, that glossy conclusion smells a bit of Cargo Cult.

Jha discussed this at a conference Nov16. Can't find any other coverage, or an online paper. Maybe Jonathan Payne knows? I Commented to ask, and he responded - see slides with video coming (but looks like there's no published paper or even online draft paper yet). Jha's intro slide-deck notes that ARRA uses a "robust" definition of Meaningful Use Of EMR - meaning (my gloss of his interpretation) that you have to work really hard to pass that test, regardless of ROI.