Sep 14 2009
CBS News reported on its program "Sunday Morning" that "what you may not know is that Congress has already approved and funded one program: the plan to computerize your medical records." The stimulus bill-funded program will attempt to bring most records online, a challenge because, right now, 90 percent of hospitals and 83 percent of doctors rely on paper records. CBS reports that few other industries still use paper records, which don't allow users to search, back-up or readily analyze the data.
"If you're wondering what the future world might look like where all medical records are electronic, you don't have to imagine it," CBS reports. "Kaiser Permanente has just spent $4 billion and five years installing an electronic medical system in its 430 offices and 35 hospitals, including one we visited in Santa Clara, Calif." CBS tours the facility, watching electronic medical records in action in several of the hospitals 5,000 terminals (Pogue, 9/13).
 This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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