Justine Mrosak entered the exam room, laptop in hand, and began interviewing her patient about his shoulder injury, systematically checking off questions and entering medical data on the computer.
At Entira Family Clinics, where the third-year medical student was making her rounds last week, the computer has become an extension of the doctor's arm, as essential to patient care as the stethoscope.
Dr. Cindy Firkins Smith sees things a bit differently. The Willmar dermatologist hates to put technology between her patient and herself, and finds data entry a time-consuming chore.
"You are taking the most expensive cog in the wheel," she said, "and you are making them a computer input person."
Electronic health records are supposed to represent the next great leap in medicine — reducing medical errors and enhancing the physician's diagnostic powers. A 2007 state statute requires all Minnesota health care providers to adopt them by 2015, and the 2010 Affordable Care Act includes a host of incentives for their adoption.
Yet, health professionals have mixed feelings about the digital records even though they are now in place at scores of Minnesota clinics and most Minnesota hospitals. Some praise them as a teaching and diagnostic tool, while others say they clutter up the patient-doctor relationship.
Time-consuming
When Smith goes into the exam room to see her patients in Willmar, she leaves the tablet computer in her office. She wants to maintain the connection with her patient, she said, and putting technology between them prevents that.
So Smith prints out everything she needs and takes notes on paper, keeping eye contact with her patients.