Charles Krauthammer; The health-care myths we live by

WaPo   Myth: Electronic records will save zillions.
... "That’s why the federal government is forcing doctors to convert to electronic health records (EHR... Yet one of the earliest effects of the EHR mandate is to create a whole new category of previously unnecessary health workers. Scribes, as they are called, now trail the doctor, room to room, entering data.

"Why? Because the EHR are so absurdly complex, detailed, tiresome and wasteful that if the doctor is to fill them out, he can barely talk to and examine the patient, let alone make eye contact — which is why you go to the doctor in the first place.

"Doctors rave about the scribes, reports the New York Times, because otherwise they have to stay up nights endlessly checking off boxes. Like clerks. Except that these are physicians whose skills are being ridiculously wasted.

"This is not to say that medical practice should stand still. It is to say that we should be a bit more circumspect about having central planners and their assumptions revolutionize by fiat the delicate ecosystem of American health care." ...

Michelle Malkin: Don't Forget Obamacare's Electronic Medical Records Wreck  "Instead of concentrating on care, doctors face exhausting regulatory battles over the definition of "meaningful use" of technology, skyrocketing costs and unwarranted Big Brother intrusions on the practice of medicine."