Move to electronic health records starts to change health care

At Froedtert Hospital, a sufferer with stomach pain was spared from having to undergo a CT scan, with its heavy dose of radiation, and instead got a safer, cheap ultrasound.

At MetroHealth System in Ohio, medication errors engaging heparin, a common but risky blood thinner, were eliminated in merely 1 year.

At ThedaCare in the Fox Valley, the fatality rate from sepsis, a complication from infections, has fallen sharply.

All of these betterments stemmed from the wise utilization of electronic health records — computerized systems that are replacing paper charts in medical settings across the country.

The transition has brought about a fair amount of grumbling from doctors about the systems' complication and sometimes clunky design. But the move away from paper records is plainly transforming the way health care is practiced.