Lest readers believe the skeptical Disease Management Care Blog has been unnecessarily harsh on the pro-electronic health record zealots, check out this news article on a long overdue agreement among 44 vendors who have agreed to pool data on EHR-related adverse events. Hopefully this on-line reporting system will be able to collect information on the extent and of type of medical mistakes associated with our brave new digital-medical world. Two points deserve emphasis:
1) Physician liability insurers (the companies that defend physicians against allegations of malpractice) are paying close attention and could use information like this in their underwriting. It seems some are ready to conclude that bad EHRs can not only lead to patient injury, but may deserve increased premiums.
2) Nothing spurs action more than the threat of an outside or unfriendly regulator or government entity willing to independently collect this kind of information and act on it. The DMCB wonders if that was one ingredient in the formation of this initiative.
The DMCB is looking forward to seeing the numbers in the coming months. Stay tuned!
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