The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act set aside $19 billion in incentives to roll out electronic health record systems. The plan is to improve the health system by making facilities more efficient at administering care so they can pass the savings along to patients.

But a new Harvard study says computerization isn’t helping anything.

The new study (which you can read here) evaluated data on 4,000 U.S. hospitals over a four-year period. It found that the enormous price tag for setting up and operating hospital IT systems outpaces any expected cost savings.

The problem “is mainly that computer systems are built for the accountants and managers and not built to help doctors, nurses and patients,” the report’s lead author, Dr. David Himmelstein, said in an interview with Computerworld.

The push for electronic health records is unlikely to stop, though, and it remains to be seen if the feds’ efforts will be effective.

But the message of the study contains a valuable lesson: Businesses  need to research the advantages to going paperless, and computerization in areas where it will make the biggest impact.

Most of your peers, vendors and customers are doing it.

The push for paperless recordkeeping is well under way — you’ve probably noticed banks asking customers to opt out of paper statements. But momentum is expected to ramp up within the year.

Reason: 92% of 300 companies surveyed say they’ll start a program to switch all customers to an electronic system within the next 12 months, according to the Green IT & Sustainability Survey 2009 by consulting group IDC.

As you can guess, the main driver is cutting costs — but attempts to enhance the company’s green reputation are also playing a role. Of the companies who’ll switch to paperless records, 64% said it’s because of costs, while 46% said sustainability was the primary reason.

You can purchase the report here. The 15-page slide presentation goes for $500.