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According to AAFP data, nearly 30 percent of family medicine residencies are using some form of electronic health record. There's much work ahead to meet the Future of Family Medicine recommendation that every family medicine residency implement an EHR system by the end of 2006.
John Bucholtz, D.O., of Columbus, Ga., past president of the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors and chair of FFM's Task Force 2, said he "fussed real hard" to include that one date in the report.
"We wanted program directors to have a firm, weighty recommendation to take to their hospitals back home to help influence the argument to invest in this technology," said Bucholtz.
Director of the Columbus Family Medicine Residency Program, Bucholtz has recently overseen successful implementation of the residency's EHR system. He said he knows firsthand the benefits of better quality measurements, increased patient safety, more accurate documentation for increased reimbursement, and happier patients and physicians.
If you have any doubts about the ripple effect residents can have on family medicine's future, think about this, said Bucholtz: "Residency graduates who are early (EHR) adopters will yield a cohort of 3,000 family medicine graduates yearly, all of whom will be well on their way to implementing the new model of care."
And that's a lot of good role models available to reach out and help colleagues along.
To reach writer Sheri Porter, e-mail sporter@aafp.org.
FP Report is
published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2004 by American Academy of Family Physicians.