This blog has often remarked that much of the healthcare system is either too distracted, poorly planned or too old-school to evaluate and implement digital solutions for practice and hospital management software.
The US government is trying to overcome this with incentives. Starting in 2011, physicians who show that they are “meaningfully” using health IT would be eligible for $40,000 to $65,000, and hospitals would be eligible for several million dollars. The incentives would be phased out over time, with penalties in place by 2016.
This news comes as another study is published showing that hospitals with automated notes and records, order entry, and clinical decision support had fewer complications, lower mortality rates, and lower costs.
The Australian government is trying to implement a Practice Incentives Program that encourages IT uptake, but is running into problems with disagreements over architecture.
Filed under: doctors, government, IT | Tagged: health IT, medicine 2.0 | Leave a comment »