Electronic health record software(EHR) is supposed to facilitate the receipt and management of medical information in real-time, ensuring that healthcare professionals have access to current patient information, thus improving the quality of care.
Yet, many patients are not made aware of test results by their physicians in a timely manner. This is often due to the fact that the results are not seen by the physicians themselves, as a result of an overabundance of EHR alerts.
According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, more than 55 percent of physicians believe that their EHR does not have convenient features for notifying patients of their test results. Still, most physicians (82.9 percent) consistently alert patients when it comes to abnormal results. Meanwhile, significantly fewer physicians (45.1 percent) notify patients when the test results are normal.
An alarming finding from the study is that 46.1 percent of doctors wait to communicate normal test results to patients when they come in for another visit – and 20.1 percent do this even if the patient’s test findings are abnormal.
The biggest reason for the delay or lapse in communication between providers and their patients is the presence of too many EHR alerts:
- 69.6% say the number of alerts they receive exceeds what they can effectively manage.
- 80.2% say they receive too many alerts to focus on the most important ones.
- 85.6% say they stay late or work on weekends in order to manage alerts.
- EHR alerts are meant to make it so that physicians don’t overlook important medical information, but the software systems seem to be having the opposite effect. This is a major safety concern and must be corrected by vendors if their products are to positively impact patient care.
How can this problem be fixed? Through better designed EHR systems that facilitate the easy retrieval of test results and the management of patient reminders and alerts.
Amanda Guerrero is a content writer specializing in EHR, healthcare technology, and Meaningful Use. In addition to maintaining her own health IT-related blog, she contributes to websites such as HealthTechnologyReview and HITECHAnswers.net.
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