Michael Burgess: “I appreciate my friend coming to the floor tonight. In fact, let's stay on the concept of electronic health records…”

“I appreciate my friend coming to the floor tonight. In fact, let's stay on the concept of electronic health records, electronic medical records for just a moment. I have a confession to make to my friend from Georgia. I haven't always been a big proponent of electronic medical records. There has been some debate from time to time in our literature as to whether the savings is actually as great as what is anticipated. I've used the two separate prescribing platforms in my private practice back in Lewisville, Texas, with sort of marginal success, but became a believer in the availability of an electronic medical record sometime after Labor Day in 2005. And the reason I became a believer was because after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Louisiana and Mississippi gulf coasts, I had an opportunity on several occasions to travel to the city of New Orleans. In January of 2006, in fact, we had a field hearing in New Orleans. As part of that field hearing, we visited Charity Hospital, Charity Hospital one of the venerable old hospitals in this country, one of the hospitals that is responsible for training some of our medical pioneers. In fact, through good fortune, I had a chance to sit down with Dr. DeBakey late last fall, and he talked a little bit about his time of training in the city of New Orleans. Charity Hospital, again, one of the venerable old institutions, now likely lost to us forever.”