Function creep and the electronic records

It’s not the name of a recording studio run by a questionably strange mixing board genius. It’s also not a band, catchy podcast title, or online music store. Function creep is a real thing, and the negative fallout caused by the mandated use of electronic records may be an excellent example of it.

According to Collins English Dictionary, function creep is defined as, “the gradual widening of the use of a technology or system beyond the purpose for which it was originally intended, especially when this leads to potential invasion of privacy.”

Technology is no doubt beneficial. Modern–day advances in record keeping and data management have streamlined nearly every professional occupation in America. But has it made them better, or, more importantly, are they safer because of it?

Healthy debate over proposed benefits of mandated electronic record keeping isn’t limited to the trucking industry. The Electronic Health Record, or EHR, is the medical industry’s version of it, and guess what? Not all licensed professionals practicing under mandated use of EHR, think it’s the safest or a most beneficial way to implement this technology.

Sound familiar?

Trucking and medical practitioners share a lot of the same problems and benefits when it comes to electronic record keeping. It streamlines the process of time-management and documents litigious issues of basic, CYA procedure in both professions. Getting paid relies solely on EHR input for most physicians. For a lot of truckers, it assures detention pay.

To reiterate the earlier statement of, “technology is no doubt beneficial,” no one ever said there aren’t positive effects associated with both ELD and EHR. But are they really improving the highway safety, patient care or caliber of professional in either industry?

The overwhelming opinion of experienced, practicing drivers and health care professionals is a definitive, “no.”

The ELD and the EHR were both designed with the same underlying directive, and it wasn’t safety or patient care. It was money. Plain and simple. More control over how professionals spend their billable hours, or miles, offers more billable hours and miles.

And because these methods of record keeping have been sold to the general public as “safety” or “care” features, the original idea of a billing option has morphed into a safety and care mandate.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet function creep. The widening of use from an option to a mandate has “next leveled” what was once a very useful, optional, tool into something that actually causes detriment to the quality of professional practice.

Technology is great when it’s used in the capacity for which it is intended. ELD’s are clocks, not magic safety devices, and EHR’s are billing tools, not patient care practices.

But you gotta admit, “Function Creep and the Electronic Records” would be a cool band name.