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Comment by maryrosecook | Hacker News Reader

Computers rarely save money. They usually allow people to do more in the same amount of time for the same money. In the case of hospitals, they provide a better level of care for the same money and in the same time. e.g. I was in an appointment with my cardiac consultant yesterday. He was able to pull up the results of my recent exercise test during the consultation, rather than having me wait to receive a letter with the results and his thoughts.

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Hospitals focus their IT systems on addressing the reporting requirements of Medicare and Medicaid, because so much more of their income comes through those channels than any other, and the reporting requirements are so onerous that they can't be met any other way.

By way of contrast (although this is only a single anecdote), my dentist's automation is clearly much more efficient, and is very effective in streamlining his operations. Digital xrays feed directly into the database, and become immediately available for viewing on the monitor even before a conventional xray would be developed -- and are always instantly retrievable from the DB. IMHO, this is because the field of dentistry is less driven by an 800-lb gorilla, and more dependent on meeting patient needs and budgets.

If this were true we would see a reduction in visit times, costs per visit, patients per doctor, patients per nurse, medical errors etc. Instead we see the opposite.

The point of the research is that none of these benefits are supported by the data we have available. Individual anecdotes are the exact opposite of what we should be thinking about after reading this paper.

That assumes that the only thing that has changed is the computerization of records. In the same time span that we've seen increased computer usage we have also seen increased red tape from insurance companies, malpractice lawsuits, etc.

I'm not saying you're wrong, just that we don't have enough information to make any claims.

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