Hospitals Progress Toward EHRs

Dr. Michota said he wasn’t convinced that being a wired hospital is a major selling point. Some doctors may prefer to work with a wired hospital, and “some physicians who like paper may run away from wired hospital.”

Yet, he added, being a wired hospital “may be a marker for a well-organized and well-managed system.”

There’s no disputing the fact that being a wired hospital benefits hospitalists, “because we’re a group of physicians who trade patients back and forth,” Dr. Michota said. “We do a lot of signing in and signing out of patients who are really sick, and there are a lot of important details that need to be exchanged.

“I think for hospitalists, fully wired hospitals are attractive, because they let you multitask,” he said.