CT lags in health IT adoption

If you’ve been avoiding the health information technology debate (it can get a bit technical), yesterday’s CT Mirror has a great analysis. While electronic medical record adoption is slow across the US, it is glacial here in CT. There are several reasons nicely outlined in the story; we need to address them all. Health IT is critical to improving quality, reducing waste, avoiding errors, coordinating care (patient-centered medical homes), accountability, and so much more. How often have you heard that we don’t have the data we need in CT to do any meaningful system planning or even to know where the problems are? We don’t know what is really working and what is just hype. Health IT is critical to all this and more. The feds have devoted billions to the effort, but it is still a slow slog in CT. The problem is that busy providers, especially primary care practices, don’t have the time or resources to invest in health IT. It will help them, but it will help the rest of us far more. We need to support them – with money, resources, and political chits to make this happen. Hopefully, the next administration is listening.
Ellen Andrews