Editorial Questions EMRs
An article printed in the New England Journal of Medicine questioned the overall value of electronic medical records (EMRs). The piece was published by two clinicians at Harvard Medical School, Drs. Jerome Groopman and Pamela Hartzband.
Benefits of EMRs include the ability to rapidly access patient information, particularly in the emergent setting. The long term goal of EMR implementation is to make access to any and all patients information possible from virtually any location at any time.
However, the clinicians note that the simplification innate to EMR systems can diminish patient care. While clinicians may be focused on simply cutting and paste text into patient records using templates, information can be lost. Attention to the patient’s problem may be reduced significantly.
Clinicians note the role that note-taking plays for clinicians, helping each formulate their thought process while interacting with patients. The traditional format helps clinicians generate potential diagnoses while considering both disease signs and symptoms. The note taking process is guided to direct the creative clinical thinking process.
The process required in using EMRs disrupts this thinking process. Key information may be easily overlooked in what the authors refer to as a “sea of results”, with massive blocks of text. The two note concerns, thus, about use of EMRs secondary to a disruption in the process of diagnosing and treating patients.
June 12, 2008 Related topics: Trends, Quality, Safety, Errors