Four Health Leaders Weigh in on Whether EMRs Save Money

Robert M. Tennant, MA
Senior Policy Advisor
Medical Group Management Association
Washington, D.C.

"The government has clearly spoken. It says we want to spend billions to get the vast majority of physicians up and running on electronic medical records.

"The fact that they front-load the money means they want it to happen in a hurry. We agree with that too. We're excited about it. But if the program is developed in a way that it doesn't facilitate that, we're looking at potential failure. If they make it so difficult to participate in the program, it's going to fail."

Johnny Walker, MBA, CPA
Founder and past CEO of Patient Safety Institute
Plano, Texas

"EMRs don't save money in standalone situations. However, EMRs will absolutely save significant money (and improve care and safety) when connected and sharing clinical information.

"The reason VA and Kaiser see savings where other hospitals don't is because of the degree of connectivity and clinical information-sharing related to individual patients.

"The savings grow geometrically following the Law of Externalities. Currently we are still at the beginning of the information sharing curve and therefore the cost saving curve. We have taken our eye off the successful VISA example. Information connectivity and access drives [EMR] adoption; not the other way around."