A recent report revealed that the problems with electronic health records (EHRs) are more serious and widespread than has been generally understood. The report Death by 1,000 Clicks: Where Electronic Health Records Went Wrong is the result of an extensive, collaborative investigation between Kaiser Health News and Fortune. The patient stories give a painful view of how faulty system interfaces, software glitches, user errors, incorrect patient input and wrong information occurrences can cause preventable harm and even death. Thousands of deaths, injuries and near misses have been reported to various databases, but these have not been connected or acted upon. Also problematic are the proprietary interests of EHR vendors and some hospitals, leading to information blocking, gag clauses, and barriers to patient access to needed medical information.

The federal government has been given primary responsibility for the current situation. A belief in the power of EHRs to make health care safer and less wasteful, combined with the 2008 financial crisis, encouraged the government to invest in a $36 billion dollar “stimulus” for EHRs. Doctors and hospitals were financially incentivized to adopt EHRs, before the products were mature and without adequate industry oversight to ensure interoperability and data sharing.

Last month, as a remedy, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services proposed new rules to remove barriers to data sharing. EHR vendors will have to fashion their systems to easily enable a complete medical record to be exported, and health systems must give patients their exported medical records for free. Gag clauses that keep doctors from discussing software problems and potential for medical errors will be prohibited. The Senate is currently considering these and other actions. While these steps are positive, these is still much to be done to remove the safety risks introduced by EHRs. In the meantime, it is advisable that patients monitor and correct the information in their medical records, ensure that they receive recommended care, and speak up if anything seems amiss.

Warm regards,

Louise Probst

BHC Executive Director