I have a confession. I am a travel snob. When I travel, I want to travel with as much luxury and as many conveniences as possible. You may ask yourself, is there really a difference between Boarding Group 5 and Boarding Group 1? Yes—absolutely. Sitting in that marginally larger seat and sipping that complimentary pre-flight beverage makes the next several hours of claustrophobic internment so much more bearable.
Recently, returning home from the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) in Las Vegas, I faced a travel-snob dilemma. I had a six-hour red-eye flight back to New Jersey, but not enough status with the airline for a free upgrade. The question was, was it worth paying for the upgrade to have the extra comfort and the extra sleep, and maybe a more productive next day at work? Or should I just keep my money in my pocket, grin and bear a middle seat, and suffer the jet-lag consequences? After all, I would end up at my destination either way. As so often happens, I was well aware of the problem, but I wasn’t sure if I was willing to devote resources to the solution.
I heard similar dilemmas voiced by many of the physicians as I walked the floor at the AAOS conference: “The experience with my current EHR is a nightmare. It’s so hard to use that I’m spending hours every evening just finishing up the work I should have done during the day! When I do try to use my EHR during the visit, it interferes with my interaction with the patient. Why do I have to use this thing if it creates so many problems?”
Just like budget travelers sitting in the back of the plane next to the bathroom and looking up at first class, many physicians with bad EHRs end up thinking: “I should have spent more time considering what a less-than-ideal solution would cost me, not just the price tag. It would have been worth it to invest in an option that works for me.” The cost of saving on an airline ticket is only a few uncomfortable hours and maybe a bit of jet lag. But ask yourself this: What is the cost of choosing the wrong EHR?
