Santa Clara County Officials Respond to Grand Jury Report
Santa Clara County health officials on Tuesday responded to criticism about the pace of the county's implementation of electronic health records, the San Jose Mercury News reports. County officials addressed concerns raised in a civil grand jury report released last week that stated the county has taken "the most inefficient, costly and failure-prone approach possible."
The report, titled, "Santa Clara County Electronic Healthcare Records -- The Time Is Now," also said county leaders were dismissive of the EHR initiative and had left several departments to pursue independent plans. "The situation reflects a lack of knowledge and interest at the highest management levels," the report stated.
Chief Deputy County Executive Gary Graves said the report reflected faith in the technology without taking into account the time it takes to adopt it, the Mercury News reports. Graves said the county is working on implementing electronic records, particularly for prison inmates.
Although it is critical of plans to implement EHRs, the report also said the county has made "considerable progress" in adopting health IT, noting that the county health system uses IT applications in administration, billing, registration, patient care orders, medical record indexing and other areas (Woolfolk, San Jose Mercury News, 6/1).