In an effort to upgrade the present health care system, the Obama Administration has proposed an economic stimulus bill that is funded by a 1.2 billion dollar grant to help the United States implement a nationwide electronic medical records (EMR) health program. These grants will financially assist physicians with the expense of making this transition from paper records to electronic records smoother. Proponents of the bill declare that the implementation of an electronic medical record system will upgrade the current system, creating more efficiency, and saving costs in the long-term. In terms of saving money, some experts have estimated that once fully implemented, an electronic medical records program can save the U.S. health industry in the area of eighty billion dollars annually.
In addition to saving money, another goal of this bill is to reduce errors in patient care and reduce time that is wasted gathering patient data and records. When physicians and health care workers were questioned about their faith in the program, they agreed that an document scanning system would be a valuable time-saving strategy. Patients typically visit several different doctors and having access to all of a patient’s medical history available instantaneously, would eliminate the time that is presently wasted gathering personal medical data from various offices. However, many of them questioned how much human errors would decrease; due largely to the fact that there is always a possibility that information could be put into the system incorrectly.
Implementing a document scanning system in the United States has also raised concerns about the privacy of individuals. The stimulus bill does have provisions that are geared to protect patient privacy. However, defining privacy is going to be a challenge. If electronic medical data is shared through a public database, it could be available to all medical professionals without any limitations. Some privacy advocate groups support a system that allows patients to control what information a particular physician can see. They argue that it is not necessary for a dermatologist to know if a woman has had an abortion. However, the majority of health workers agree that in an emergency room situation, it is important for doctors to have a full history of the patient, so that the best treatment can be provided.