Electronic Health Records: Patient Safety and Liability Concerns
Health information technology (HIT) has significantly shaped the landscape of modern healthcare, and electronic health records (EHRs) represent one of the most consequential technological advances in recent decades. EHRs have revolutionized the documentation of patient care. For the majority of healthcare organizations and practitioners, paper records are a relic of the past.
Virtually all hospitals in the United States use EHRs, and almost 90 percent of office-based physicians have adopted these systems.1 The shift from paper to electronic records has been slower in dentistry, but the number of dental practices implementing EHRs continues to grow.
Over the years, the promise of EHR capabilities has been ambitious and perhaps borderline utopian – these systems have been lauded as a way to vastly improve patient safety, efficiency, care coordination, and information sharing. However, the reality of EHRs has been a complex intertwining of incremental improvements, new risks, and ongoing frustrations. Many benefits have been tempered by negative effects or outcomes. For example:
- Increased access to patient data has resulted in information overload and data dumps.
- Enhanced clinical decision support and patient alerts can cause alarm fatigue when not properly designed or implemented.
- The convenience of electronic prescribing and referrals has been moderated by system glitches and human factors that result in errors or oversights.
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This document should not be construed as legal or medical advice and should not be construed as rules or establishing a standard of care. Because the facts applicable to your situation may vary, or the laws applicable in your jurisdiction may differ, please contact your attorney or other professional advisors if you have any questions related to your legal or medical obligations or rights, state or federal laws, contract interpretation, or other legal questions.
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