EHR is concerned with the digitization of patient records as maintaining patient records manually is a tedious task that serve as the basis of diagnosis and treatment. Physicians and their staff members are usually burdened with record keeping activity, often resulting into insufficient or error full information. The biggest challenge arises at times of emergency when records couldn't be accessed by the attending doctor. At times, when a patient wants to change the physician, they feel the heat of getting the records transferred. EHR seems to be an answer to these problems.
Looking into the advantages that EHR promises both for doctors as well as patients, US government is very enthusiastic in getting it implement. This is the reason incentive package for ehr adoption has been announced: The package clearly states that on meeting certain usability criteria a physician can receive up to $44,000 over 5 years under medicare and more on those later. Working in a "health professional shortage area" entitles you to 10% more. But to receive the maximum $44,000, you must qualify as an EHR user beginning in either 2011 or 2012.
The implementation cost is the main hurdle in the adoption of EHR, however, the stimulus package, long term advantages are all creating a smooth path for EHR. In other words, EHR is all set to explode the US healthcare market.
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