electronic health records

Today, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the number of hospitals using health information technology (IT) has more than doubled in the last two years.

She also announced new data showing nearly 2,000 hospitals and more than 41,000 doctors have received $3.1 billion in incentive payments for ensuring meaningful use of health IT, particularly certified Electronic Health Records (EHR).

It seems the EHR pundits are starting to notice one of the side effects of EHR technology: the liabilities EHRs impose on users.

Of course, such liabilities are presented as the fault not of a cavalier industry that's disregarded notions of good software engineering, proper conduct of human subjects experimentation, appropriate methodologies for medical device trials, etc.

(while promoting the data these devices generate as 'revolutionizing healthcare') -- but as the fault of plaintiff trial lawyers.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- America may be a technology-driven nation, but the health care system's conversion from paper to computerized records needs lots of work to get the bugs out, according to experts who spent months studying the issue....

Report: Electronic health records still need work Associated Press

There's this:

Blue Cross Blue Shield of RI Pilot Lowered Monthly Costs By Up to 33% Through EHRs
December 13, 2011
Becker's Hospital Review.com
Sabrina Rodak

I addressed the issue of alteration of electronic records at posts such as:

"Stroud v.

Abington Memorial Hospital: Is This Why Chart Alteration Might Be Appealing?",

"On Penalties for Alteration of Electronic Health Records"

and

The AMA's publication American Medical News recently quoted me following comments from IOM EHR Safety committee member Richard Cook in the Nov. 21, 2011 article "IOM calls for monitoring and probe of health IT hazards" by Kevin O'Reilly:

The HHS Office for the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology announced today that more than 100,000 primary care providers are adopting certified Electronic Health Records (EHRs) to help improve their quality of care and ultimately lower health care costs.

I have often had to respond to those who claim that EHR's don't cause medical errors, users do. That subset of the health IT irrationally exuberant seem common in the health IT industry and pundit channels.

The article "Tensions and Paradoxes in Electronic Patient Record Research: A Systematic Literature Review Using the Meta-narrative Method" by Greenhalgh, Potts, Wong, Bark and Swinglehurst at University College London appeared in the Dec. 2009 Milbank Quarterly.

I wrote about it and quoted it at this post.

A key statement: