• My old written notes had only the meat, the pertinent data. They were mostly my thoughts. This was how we all communicated with each other. Our thoughts were what was important. We can't do that now. We can't be candid about our thoughts because our patients can see their charts. The open medical record is one of the worst decisions ever made.
  
  
• We used to be able to use abbreviations and blunt language in our notes to remind ourselves about a thought trail, to get a consult, to order tests. Now, we have to edit for our readership, and be evasive about sensitive issues. Often, this leads to the whole thought process being left out in service of time. So we have an issue of the forest for the trees, and all we have are junk trees.
  

​Obviously this forces clinicians to waste a huge amount of their time, without providing any substantial healthcare benefits for either healthcare professionals, or patients.

​Burnout among medical professionals is an increasing problem, while patient dissatisfaction is growing. Doctors and nurses are understaffed, and overworked at most institutions. They're increasingly frustrated by how their job description has changed over the past couple of decades. Patients are losing faith in the healthcare system because of increasing wait times for appointments, and dissatisfaction with the way their appointments (and often their treatments) are handled. Is a crisis looming? You be the judge.

​​In a previous article, we considered some of the problems with the electronic medical record (EMR) system, and how it has negatively impacted the experiences of most patients when interacting with the healthcare system. Many patients resent the way that clinicians devote more time to the computer monitor and data entry during an appointment, than they share with the patient. But that's not the clinician's fault. Both clinicians and patients alike (in the U.S., at least) are victims (or captives, however you prefer to view it), of the comprehensive healthcare reform law enacted on March 23, 2010, known as Obamacare.

​According to an online article titled The History of Electronic Health Records (EHRs), electronic health records date back to the mid-1960s, when Lockheed developed an electronic system known as a clinical information system (Rajaee, 2022, June 4).[1] This inspired other technology and engineering companies to begin developing electronic health record systems for hospitals and universities. During the 1970s, the federal government began using EHR in the Department of Veterans affairs.

​all medical records have been maintained manually in paper filing systems (prior to the advent of EHRs), but during the 1960s, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota became one of the first large health systems to begin using EHRs. Back then, the technology was so expensive that it was used exclusively by the government, in collaboration with health organizations. By the 1980s, EHRs were being adopted by more medical facilities.