Why an EHR?
The United States is in a global economy. To compete with overseas manufacturers, healthcare costs must be controlled. “It is a well known fact that the U.S. auto industry spends more per car on healthcare than on steel,” said Lee Iacocca, the retired chairman of Chrysler. Consequently, General Motors and other U.S. automakers are moving manufacturing to Canada and overseas to lower total labor costs in an effort to remain competitive here and abroad. Although healthcare has tremendous inefficiencies and waste, the industry now has the important opportunity to improve quality by using information technology. Nothing trumps quality, and improved quality decreases costs. Quality may be improved by providing the right information to the right person at the right time. In 1960, there were 600 commonly prescribed medicines; in 2000 there were 6,000. No human can keep straight this quantity of information, including side effects and interactions. Error prevention also can improve quality and
