Re:When the Doctor Must Choose Between Her Patients and Her ...
by scott_s on Monday January 25, 2016 @11:58AM
(#10968277)
Correct, and I understood that, so I was not clear. My question was on whether or not patient notes are also associated with more-bureaucracy-for-the-same-health-outcome. At higher cost. Maybe more patient notes actually lead to better health outcomes, even though they're an annoyance for doctors and cause them to see less patients.
Re:When the Doctor Must Choose Between Her Patients and Her ...
by Retric on Monday January 25, 2016 @12:51PM
(#10968636)
Got it, it's a good point and worth looking at. Doctors taking lot's of notes while in with a patent could also lead to worse outcomes as they are distracted.
However, ~50% increase in healthcare costs would need to have a huge impact on patent outcomes or drastic fraud reduction to be worth it.
A seasoned supervisor told me that, when he was a resident working in the psychiatric emergency room, he used to see more than three times as many patients as we residents see now.
“How?” I asked him, with an incredulous lilt in my voice that could barely be masked.
“Our notes could be shorter back then,” was his reply. (Insurance, regulations and electronic health records weren’t issues back then.)