Previously on this blog, we referenced the widespread mistreatment of back pain across the country — namely with regard to needless X-rays and prescription painkillers before more basic avenues of treatment have been explored. Chiropractic EHR software provides an invaluable tool in identifying such trends, but the benefits of digitized documents don't end there. A recent report analyzing records from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey over the last decade has shed light on another concerning pattern, this time in the treatment of respiratory infections among adults.

According to a press release from the American Society for Microbiology, researchers have found that antibiotics are consistently overprescribed for adult patients with acute respiratory tract infections. The researchers note that this avenue of treatment has been largely curtailed among children, but that same oversight and care has not been applied to older individuals.

"The observed lack of change in antibiotic utilization for adult acute respiratory tract infection patients, especially those with infections where antibiotics are not indicated, is concerning," the study states. "This may indicate that efforts to curtail inappropriate antibiotic use have not been effective or have not yet been implemented for this subset of patients."

The issue with these prescriptions, the source posits, is that the vast majority of such infections are the result of viruses, not bacteria, and are thereby resistant to antibiotic treatments. This means that these drugs are being administered inappropriately, placing undue costs on patients and the healthcare system as a whole. This is just one of many trends that the longitudinal data afforded by chiropractic EMR software may be able to unearth, as medical practitioners and policymakers will have more access to bigger-picture issues that extend beyond specific communities.