The office eliminated 2 1/2 more positions in the billing department because clerks no longer have to struggle with doctors' handwritten notes.
The laptop enables Saver to quickly check lab results, and costly tests aren't repeated because a lab result is lost or an image misplaced, he said.
Thanks to warnings embedded in the electronic health record, or EHR, Saver can monitor his patients' prescriptions to avoid harmful interactions. In case of a drug recall, he can check the database in minutes to find out whom to notify.
Elsewhere, there are even more promising signs. Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, which installed an EHR system five years ago, has all but eliminated errors in prescriptions, according to hospital officials.
In the U.S., 17 percent of physicians use electronic health records, according to a survey published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine. A barrier to wider adoption has been up-front expense. Installing the system can cost more than $30,000 per physician. Even though Saver and his partners bought a less expensive system, they had to take out a $178,000 loan.
"Being a family doctor is a hand-to-mouth operation," Saver, 56, said. "And most physician practices have bought these systems by taking food off their tables. ... It's been something of an act of faith."
