To the Editor:

We have been using an EHR since 1981 and have a fully integrated system. We lack some bells and whistles but have all the basics.

Our four offices provide more than 40,000 patient encounters each year. We upgraded to a mini-mainframe with a tape back-up about seven years ago and have not had to delete records yet. Our file retrieval rate is about 15 seconds for a moderately large chart.

While our in-house computer enthusiast has made some modifications, we are still using the original 1981 EHR. Our vendor is an older provider with a smaller operation. Both our system and our vendor could be described as “off the beaten path,” but 25 years later, we couldn’t be happier.