Reducing Medical Errors with Electronic Medical Records

The Obama administration has prioritized funding allocated for electronic medical records. This approach is in line with the CBO's report on medical errors resulting from poor communication within the field. Despite the common sense approach and clear benefit to health care providers and patients, some medical groups are resisting the movement towards electronic medical records claiming the cost with not outweigh the benefit. This argument appears to be based in risk management policies and attempts to limit the available evidence to evaluate and criticize medical care.

The electronic medical records will allow physicians to share information in a more timely fashion, allow emergency room physicians real time access to a patient's history, and further reduce mistakes with handwriting and records routing. In my experience evaluating medical malpractice cases, many injuries would have been avoided had the physician had the information at the appropriate time. Many mistakes arise from test results not being communicated to a family physician or an emergency room physician being unaware of a patient's history. One of the most common mistakes are medication errors, which can be readily reduced through electronic medical records and software.