How Far Behind In Technology Are Oklahoma Hospitals?

One of the constant talking points across Oklahoma is our state's healthcare system. The quality of care Oklahomans receive is continually ranked among the lowest in the country, #49 in 2024, although there have been attempts to improve it over the years.

Since so much of the Sooner State is so rural, I always sort of figured most of the doctoring was done around kitchen tables. That's how it was as I grew up, and I still see it today. Not for the big things, but for most ailments. If your mom ever stitched you up, you understand.

I would consider myself lucky that I haven't spent much time in hospitals or doctors' offices over the last twenty-five years, but in helping out a friend, I was stunned to learn that cutting-edge healthcare providers are still using 90s technology to move information.

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I was asked to pick up some medical records needed so my buddy's little girl could get her broken arm set. She's been to three different doctors in three different far-away towns over the last week, and she's received three different opinions.

They asked me to grab the X-ray/imaging files so they could take them up to OKC later that day, but I was astounded to realize hospitals, working at the forefront of medical technology, are still burning medical records on CDs.

Does the entire medical community still use CD-ROMs to transfer files?

In 2025, the odds your computer has a physical drive is relatively rare. Unless your PC is old, or you made a conscious effort to install one after-the-fact, who is still rocking burners and CD-ROM? Are the average hospital computers just that old?

I did think maybe it was just this particular SWOK hospital was way behind the times, but I suppose they're expecting the surgery center in OKC to be able to load these up too.

What does Google say?

This was a shocker, but this appears to be the standard practice among orthopedic doctors across the country. Since the early 1990s, the CD not only sped up treatment times when having to work between different doctors, but it's still thought of as the most secure way to transfer medical files in 2025.

Why? Because data hacks happen all of the time in every industry across the world.

Using CDs allows offices to avoid the heavy digital regulatory standards for storing and transferring records... at least that's what this website says.

At least we're not alone in wondering why such an old technology is still being utilized today.