“Instead of pens, scribes here use laptops as they trail doctors from bed to bed, taking detailed notes that will form part of each patient’s electronic medical record. Experts say the scribes’ peculiar role — with one foot in 2009 and one in 2000 B.C. — illustrates hospitals’ often bumpy transition from clipboards and closets of paper charts to digital records.
While most other businesses scrapped their paper files decades ago, hospitals have lagged. Several of the health reform proposals being considered in Congress would push the industry to convert to electronic records, says Ashish Jha of the Harvard School of Public Health.”
Article
Liz Szabo, USA TODAY, 7 October 2009
