Hospitals Slow to Switch To Electronic Records

Thursday, March 26, 2009;
LOS ANGELES -- U.S. hospitals have a long way to go to join the digital age. Fewer than 2 percent of U.S. hospitals have abandoned paper medical charts and completely switched to electronic health records, a national survey found.

An additional 8 to 11 percent have basic electronic systems in place, with at least one department converted to digital. The most common obstacle to conversion cited by the surveyed hospitals was cost.

The findings, published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, come as the Obama administration plans to spend $19 billion to help modernize medical record-keeping systems
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/25/AR2009032503841.html