Why do doctors hate EMRs?

While trolling the web, I found this great article written by a physician about why doctors hate EMRs.  Electronic Medical Records, or its cousin EHR and even PHR, are supposed to help physicians provide better quality care to patients, ideally at lower costs to the society.  However, as you can see in this article, http://www.dillingerkovach.com/accusourcecareers/?p=10501, the adoption rate is abysmal.

As a software guy, and having studied cases of why Business Intelligence and other other enterprise software systems suffered poor adoption among their intended users, I can almost predict the usual barriers to adoption.  What makes the EMR case more interesting is that in small clinics, the physicians tend to be the buyers of the software too.  If they are unhappy with the product, they would simply not buy an EMR or abandon it after paying for it.   Those who are in larger enterprises (aka large clinics or hospitals), the unhappy docs will find anyway they can to get out of using it.

Why, you may ask, are these doctors so recalcitrant about technology?  The author said technology was not the problem.  According to him, docs use much more sophisticated technology everyday – MRI, cyro-probes, laser, etc.  Instead, it is because “It slows them down!”.   It isn’t the first time I hear this from a doc.  If you are in the business, I am sure you know this tune too.

Most EMRs, similar to ERP and other enterprise software, suffer from the same shortcomings.  Told poignantly by the author in this excerpt, the consumers suffer from a sign at a dry-cleaner’s shop reads: Low Prices, High Quality, Fast Service: Pick One. I am optimistic that we can get to a place where EMRs not only contribute to better care, lower costs and also user satisfaction (physicians’ and patients’).  It wouldn’t be trivial.  Some vendors won’t make it through.  If you have answers to the questions that the author raised in the article, I would love to see your comments.