This book addresses one of the most stimulating topics under discussion in medical practices--electronic medical records. The issue isn't whether computers should be used in medicine, but making the transition to a new method of documenting patient care and viewing patient data. This book is for anyone who is interested in or involved with the management of a medical practice, or anyone who would like to know the "how to" along with the "why" of electronic medical records.

In a joint effort between the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine, this books attempts to bridge the knowledge/awareness divide separating health care professionals from their potential partners in systems engineering and related disciplines. The goal of this partnership is to transform the U.S. health care sector from an underperforming conglomerate of independent entities (individual practitioners, small group practices, clinics, hospitals, pharmacies, community health centers et. al.) into a high performance "system" in which every participating unit recognizes its dependence and influence on every other unit. By providing both a framework and action plan for a systems approach to health care delivery based on a partnership between engineers and health care professionals, Building a Better Delivery System describes opportunities and challenges to harness the power of systems-engineering tools, information technologies and complementary knowledge in social sciences, cognitive sciences and business/management to advance the U.S. health care system.

Health care organizations see the need to automate much more intensively than they have in the past. GAO found that automated medical records offer the potential for great improvements in management of patient care. Automated records are far more accessible than paper records, more complete and accurate, can increase staff productivity, and may reduce operating costs. Factors which have impeded progress, include technology that is not fully developed or is considered too costly, potential misuse of automated information, and user resistance to automated systems. Other factors need to be addressed. At present, there is a lack of standardization in the ways data are collected and processed, which limits their usefulness for research. Automated records also raise questions about the security and privacy of sensitive information. In addition, the legal implications of automated patient records are still not clearly defined. In spite of these problems, there are significant benefits with automation. Solutions to the problems associated with automating medical records need to be found. Whether computers can support medical practice seems less the issue than how to bring about the development and use of the technology to do so.