Shift to Electronic Medical Records Comes with Its Own Challenges
Huffington Post is drawing attention to the underlying risks as hospitals around the country embrace electronic medical record systems.
For years now, health safety groups have advocated a complete shift to electronic medical records. A system like this, it is believed and Indiana medical malpractice lawyers would agree, would substantially reduce the risk of human error contributing to patient fatalities. However, in far too many instances, there have been fatalities or serious medical injuries caused by the use of these systems.
The kinds of errors made, have differed greatly. In one particular instance, staff misread the fine print on a computer screen, and ended up dispensing more than 10 times the patient’s prescribed medication. As a result, the patient suffered a heart attack. In another instance, a patient died after there was a breakdown of the Computerized Provider Order Entry, which is a central function of the system.
There have been other reports of delayed information, misinformation, and delayed treatment linked to the use of electronic medical records, and with serious consequences. For instance, in one hospital, the computer failed to inform the staff that the patient had been shifted from the intensive care unit to a ward. Nurses were not aware of the patient’s presence in the ward, and failed to attend to him, even as he suffered seizures through the night.
Huffington Post’s Investigative Fund accessed data from the Food and Drug Administration, and found at least 237 reports of “adverse events” associated with the use of electronic medical records over the past two years. Most of these glitches resulted in wrong dosages of medications, while other software bugs delivered wrong test results.
What's worse is that these 237 events may be just the tip of the iceberg. Because the systems are so new, it's hard for hospitals to document how many of these errors have occurred. It doesn't help that the FDA lacks the resources necessary to ensure a smooth transition from paper records to electronic ones.
The federal administration is encouraging hospitals to speed up the shift from paper files to electronic records. The Obama administration is investing more than $27 billion in funding to encourage doctors and hospitals to phase in these systems. However, these funds will be available to those hospitals that can speed up the process of installing these systems. Critics believe that the system is being introduced far too quickly at many hospitals, and without sufficient staff training in the proper use of these systems.
As Indiana medical malpractice attorneys, we believe that speed in installing these systems without focusing on staff training, could actually end up causing more problems than they were meant to solve.
