Physician Reluctance to Invest in Their Office IT

John of the Chillmark Research blog comments (see: Dis-information Among Those in the Know) on what he believes to be the incorrect perception that physicians are reluctant to invest in IT to support their office practices:

[One example of disinformation is the] whining that physicians can not go digital because of costs. As I related in my notes from the first day [of the conference], this should be viewed as an investment in the business.  Granted, there will not be an immediate ROI, but it will come in time, that I am sure of and ultimately, it will allow providers to participate in the future as more and more consumers look to engage their providers over the Web and desiring greater access and control over their records. 

I personally believe that this perception about physicians is correct and that they are reluctant to go digital. John's comment is more about what he thinks should happen than what is actually occurring. I have come to my conclusion not directly but through my discussions with many lab managers responsible for reference lab programs requiring the use of computers in physician's offices. To put the matter very bluntly and at the risk of a gross overstatement, I have been told the following: do not expect physicians in private practice to pay for anything.

My personal theory about why this is the case, and an explanation that elicits nods of agreement from my lab colleagues, is that physicians in small private practices do not view themselves as running small businesses. For example, they often tend not to have a formal business plan and do not allocate a portion of their budget to, say, marketing or information technology. They tend to view money spent on office computing as a loss of income rather than a means to increase the efficiency of their practice or to increase patient satisfaction. In other words, they do not view IT as part of the cost of running their business.

Returning to John's note above, note his references to investment in the business, ROI,  and consumer control over records. I believe that this is a vocabulary that is rather foreign and therefore irrelevant for many physicians.

Comments

[bev MD]

I think your comments are absolutely dead on target. In addition to your points, many physicians are put off by the IT disasters regularly suffered by the hospitals at which they practice, and (rightly) view office IT as an ongoing headache for which they not only have to pay for installation, but then pay through the nose for someone who can keep it running - or waste precious time trying to do it themselves.
Until the vendors come up with a better (read: more reliable and easy to install and maintain) product both for hospitals and offices, look for progress in this area to resemble pulling teeth.