• 02
  • November
    2011

Getting up on the latest technology should help improve its business and increase its efficiency, one would think. In the case of electronic health records, though, that appears not to be the case.

In our last blog, we noted that a recent paper published by AC Group, an IT research and consulting firm based out of Montgomery, which found that electronic health records actually increase physicians' risk of medical malpractice lawsuits.

According to those familiar with the problem, the problem is significant. According to Mark Anderson, CEO of the AC Group, the review found that two deaths were traced back to missing alerts for medications patients should not have been given. The electronic health care systems in those cases should have caught that, but didn't.

Electronic health records may also open up doctors to additional malpractice claims because of the ability of malpractice attorneys to access data not available when to the provider at the time care was provided. This time synchronization issue may add to the other problems presented by such systems.

The AC Group review of electronic health records advised vendors of such systems to have their products reviewed for potential malpractice concerns that may face their customers. So far, there has been resistance to this among vendors.

According to Mark Anderson, malpractice insurance carriers are currently looking for ways to mitigate risks related to electronic health record systems. One possibility is to charge higher premiums for using certain vendors. Whatever the solution is, it is likely to encourage vendors to improve their products.

Source: informationweek.com, "Electronic Records May Increase Malpractice Lawsuit Risk," Neil Versel, Oct 25, 2011.