IT issues, staff training, and Meaningful Use attestation are some of the most common difficulties physicians face when adopting EHRs. But there are several less talked about issues that may be negatively impacting your practice.
Today, we identify these often-surprising problems and provide advice on how to address them.
Not Checking Pre-Populated Fields
A recent study by the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority shows troubling news for providers who rely exclusively on automatically populated default fields.
According to the study, 40% of EHR prescription errors are caused by providers failing to change the default value of a medication order.
While pre-populated fields are meant to save time during data entry, users often forget to change default values. This can lead to serious medication errors that can harm patients.
Encourage your staff double-checks the information in pre-populated fields to avoid potentially disastrous mistakes.
Paper-Based Workarounds
A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics showed an abundance of primary care practices implements paper workarounds rather than properly using their EHR’s features.
Unfortunately, paper-based workarounds lead to increased medical errors, decreased productivity and financial losses.
Although hybrid workflows are typically necessary when initially implementing an EHR, the key is getting away from paper as quickly as possible. Going fully electronic won’t only keep you from duplicating tasks, but will decrease the time needed for your staff to learn how to use an EHR correctly.
Alert Fatigue
EHR alarm fatigue is caused by an excessive frequency of alarms going off for abnormal test results, diagnosis prompts, and other alerts within an EHR. This results in irritated providers adjusting alarm settings beyond the recommended limits or ignoring alerts altogether. Doing so can lead to adverse health outcomes for patients.
According to a recent JAMIA study, 87% of physicians claim they feel overwhelmed by excessive alerts while using their EHR. And even more alarming is that one-third admit they’ve failed to notice important test results on at least one occasion.
It’s crucial to pay attention to every alarm that appears in your system. Many EHRs can be adjusted to only alert you when something significant occurs. Tinker with your system’s settings until you strike the right balance between useful alerts and annoying notifications.
Overall, EHRs are superior, as the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages. However, misuse can end up hurting your practice in multiple ways. So, pay attention to these potential complications and your practice will avoid costly mistakes down the road.
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