Medical Mistakes in the Emergency Room Related to Electronic Health Records
By its nature, the emergency room is a chaotic, frenetic place. Because of the speed at which emergency medical care is delivered, accuracy is important. You might think that electronic health records (EHRs) would be a helpful addition to the fast-paced environment, but it seems that EHRs are actually contributing to the medical errors that take place there according to an article on Medscape.
Hospitals often receive financial incentives to adopt EHRs
The Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs provide incentive payments to hospitals as they adopt and can demonstrate meaningful use of electronic health record technology, and they are also mandated under the Affordable Care Act. It is not really a question as to whether EHRs make sense in a digital age, but the question is how doctors and other medical professionals learn how to leverage the benefits of the technology without allowing it to compromise patient care.
For their part, EHR computer systems must be designed in such a way that accounts for the inevitability of human error so that it can override obvious medication errors and catch keyboarding mistakes that could impact patient health. Some of the kinds of errors that could be caused by the EHR system include a doctor accessing the wrong patient history by mistake, selecting the wrong medications or the wrong dose.
The Journal of Patient Safety published an article on the role of EHRs in patient harms, errors and medical malpractice claims. The report chronicles patient harms such as deaths, strokes, missed and significantly delayed cancer diagnoses, lost lab results and more. The data for the report was compiled from a medical malpractice insurance database. Since such a miniscule portion of patient harms ever go to court and win compensation, this report provides only a pinhole-sized view of the problem. The Electronic Health Record–Related Events in Medical Malpractice Claims includes a long list of case examples of Health IT related errors that include preventable medical errors such as:
- Fentanyl order altered by a decimal point; patient died.
- Order for blood delayed reaching the lab; patient expired before the blood arrived.
- Abnormal cardiac ultrasound results misrouted, would have prompted anticoagulation; patient died of stroke.
We go to the ER because we are in need of critical care. It is challenging enough that preventable medical errors can be made by doctors all on their won without the further complication of technology. Patients or their loved ones who have suffered serious injuries or harm due to electronic health records errors may have grounds for taking legal action against the doctor and hospital responsible for the mistake.
For more than 40 years, Barry J. Nace has worked to protect the rights of victims of medical malpractice and other personal injuries. Throughout his career, he has proven that multimillion-dollar awards are not a matter of luck, but the result of experience, hard work, outstanding trial skills, and an unquestioned dedication to justice. To date, Mr. Nace has produced dozens of verdicts and settlements in excess of $1 million with three in excess of $30 million. Read more about Barry J. Nace.