Some ONC-Certified EHRs Could Cause Patient Harm, Study Shows

December 20, 2019 - Electronic health records (EHRs) are a leading cause of patient harm and there needs to be additional improvements and evaluation to these systems, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Using EHR surveillance data collected by the ONC, researchers from the MedStar Health National Center for Human Factors analyzed over 350 reports regarding EHR issues that violated the federal certification program run by HHS.

Roughly 40 percent of EHRs that were analyzed, reported having an issue with a potential for patient harm. Researchers also found that roughly 786 hospitals and 37,365 individual providers may have used EHRs with potential patient safety issues based on required product use reporting.