The Erickson Tribune, in the May 2007 issue, has a lead article regarding the use of electronic medical records which indicates that this type of recording of medical/health events is absolutely the "best way to go". Having experienced working with patients for over 50 years; gaining confidence within the parameters of the "doctor-patient" relationships; finding that all medical records are only as good as the materials written in them, and finding that the data is available for "all to see" given the right incentive(s), ie court orders, "spying" within the organization, etc; that all data is not always the accurate/right data for "garbage in is garbage out"; finding that people who obtain the data utilize this data for their own ends/objectives/etc, which may or may not be in the best interests of the patient nor of the providor of the health/medical care, and most likely is designed to destroy our health care delivery system.
Electronic records will become available to anyone who wants to see them, for better, but usually for the worse.  I like the fact that y'all have utilized a particular medical record system and that you have had a remarkably successful experience - I think there are a lot of merits in handling people. But you seem to forget, as most people do, that this type of organizational recording of medical data is extremely expensive (I have seen data which shows that each and every physician must expend approximately $30,000 just to set up the program). This is the time that costs of health care are rising exponentially. Nobody has looked at the reasons for this turn of events but it is a known fact that regulations (primarily governmental, at all levels, malpractice insurance and insurance companies) have increased the "cost of doing business" by 25-30%. Payments to cognitive physicians (who do little, if any, procedures) from Medicare have not been changed in 4 or 5 years while their "cost of doing business" has increased remarkably. And, as a matterof fact, legislative proposals in 2007 will REDUCE these payments by 35-40%.