Diabetics Receive Better Care from Docs with EHRs

Although meeting Meaningful Use hasn't exactly been the easiest of feats for hospital CIOs, perhaps they can take solace in knowing that their patients will receive vastly superior care to those treated by doctors using paper records, according to the results of a new study published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Overall, 51 percent of participating patients treated at practices with electronic health records (EHR) received care that met four out of four care standards used in the study: timely blood sugar measurements, management of kidney problems, eye exams and pneumonia vaccinations. Only 7 percent of patients at practices using paper records received the same level of care.