As Medicare pushes all medical entities to make their 2014 deadline to go electronic with medical records, there is still one glaring problem. There are too many software programs, and no real way for different offices computers to talk to one another. Therefore, medical software must integrate to be truly efficient. Although computers and operating systems may very some from office to office, most software will work on any Windows based machine. In fact, software developers want their programs to look and feel like Windows, so it will be easy for office staffs to learn.

The government’s idea is that electronic medical records will reduce communication errors. However, there’s no communication at all if the a hospital can’t access a doctor’s office information. Of course, this type of integration would require major security updates, but with proper password clearance and plenty of firewalls and good anti-viruses to protect operating systems, the process should be as safe as the old paper method of storing information.

Even in print form, the various medical record softwares create a different looking document. There’s a little bit of time wasted as medical personnel train their eyes to look at each software’s paper document and find the critical information they need. Of course, one over arching program that satisfies all medical entities is pretty far fetched, but there must be some solution that allows different software programs to share critical information. Many of these computer programs have the ability to create email, so that could be the solution. However, it would be nice if office staff didn’t have to re-enter the information into their software templates.

As medical costs continue to rise, administrative expenses could be lowered with an integrated system. Hopefully, technology will advance in an affordable way, and this need for integration will be met. It will be interesting to see if and when this kind of update will happen.