U.S. Will Offer Doctors Free Electronic Records System

By GINA KOLATA
Published: July 21, 2005

There is no one in medicine who does not consider it both crucial and long overdue to have electronic records in doctor's offices and hospitals.

With electronic files, patient records are not stuck on pieces of paper in endless files, but are on a screen at the touch of a key. The computers alert doctors to do medical tests and avert errors by warning when they write a prescription for the wrong drug or the wrong dose. Patients can often see their own files and even make their own appointments, online, from their homes.