EHRs and Potential Drawbacks

What are some recommended practices for avoiding unintended consequences of electronic healthcare record use?

Electronic health records (EHRs) have been very valuable in terms of consolidating patient health records and ensuring that patient records are immediately updated with the latest documented information. But this does not mean that unintended consequences cannot occur that impede the achievement of this aim. For example, a physician may print out an EHR and include data he or she did not record electronically, resulting in a significant gap in the patient’s file (Wiedemann, 2012). Preexisting electronic forms may mean that critical information for the patient about how to take the medication may also not be available when the patient logs into an online record (Wiedemann, 2012).

Fragmented delivery systems may ensure that patient information that is urgent, such as troubling lab results, are not immediately transmitted to the patient’s primary provider (Wiedemann, 2012). An example of this might be a patient with low potassium in an extensive lab report, which is not recorded correctly or flagged, resulting in the patient having a heart attack due to a lack of timely treatment (Wiedemann, 2012). Or, patients may access their lab results online without context, before the results are gone over with them by a provider, leading to unnecessary fear and misinformation.

To reduce this, clinicians need to be briefed on keeping all information current, even if it takes some additional time to enter information into an electronic form. Records should be continually updated within a practice, and providers should receive notifications when new patient results are submitted. Providers should also go over results with patients in a timely fashion. Providers must also be correctly briefed as to how to fill in electronic record forms in the most comprehensive manner possible, so that with adequate training the requirement of using EHRs is not seen as a burden, but rather an asset to care.