AMA News: Dangers of "EHR Sloppy and Paste" - And Why Was An Informatics Expert Apparently For "Anecdotes" Before He Was Against Them?

In the AMA News an article by Kevin O'Reilly appeared entitled "EHRs: “Sloppy and paste” endures despite patient safety risk."It addresses the dangers of a common feature of EHR's used recklessly:  copy-and-paste. EHRs: “Sloppy and paste” endures despite patient safety riskCopying and pasting information is common within EHRs, but the practice sometimes can lead to confusion and endanger patient care. By Kevin B. O'Reilly, amednews staff. Posted Feb. 4, 2013.During the winter holidays, a patient at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut had a large pressure ulcer with an abscess. A surgical intern made a note in the patient’s electronic health record that said, “Patient needs drainage, may need OR.”The problem? The same note appeared for several consecutive days, even after a surgical team successfully drained the abscess. The intern had copied and pasted the previous day’s note, but failed to appropriately update it to reflect the fact that the drainage was done. The note confused the consulting infectious disease team and nearly led to an unneeded change in the patient’s antibiotic regimen.That's somewhat ironic.  I performed my postdoc at Yale Center for Medical Informatics where we discussed.among other issues, potential drawbacks of badly-designed or implemented EHRs.   Unfortunately, I hear from people who've left that the Center is relatively marginalized these days with respect to influence.  (Actually, the marginal...
Source: Health Care Renewal - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Tags: AMA News healthcare IT note cloning healthcare IT note copying Kevin O'Reilly healthcare IT anecdote Bill Hersh healthcare IT risks Source Type: blogs