A gap appears to exist between policymakers' expectations of commercial electronic medical records (EMRs) in supporting care coordination and the way they are actually used by providers and clinicians in the healthcare environment, according to a new analysis by researchers at the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) in Washington, DC.

Current ambulatory care EMRs are designed to promote care coordination within a practice by making information available at the point of care. However, they actually appear less helpful for exchanging information across physician practices and care settings, according to the study, which was supported by the Commonwealth Fund. The study is published online in The Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Editor’s note: To read the rest of this article, visit “Current EMRs may be more helpful with billing than care coordination”found in the Reading Room at www.StrategiesForNurseManagers.com.

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