{"id":9734,"date":"2013-10-24T18:00:30","date_gmt":"2013-10-24T22:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poweryourpractice.com\/?p=9734"},"modified":"2013-10-24T18:00:30","modified_gmt":"2013-10-24T22:00:30","slug":"copy-and-pasting-ehr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/copy-and-pasting-ehr\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Copy-and-Pasting in Your EHR Endanger Your Practice?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you remember the nirvana-like feeling you got the first time someone taught you how to copy and paste? It was like a whole new world of possibilities opened up at your fingertips. No longer would you waste valuable time retyping words over and over again until your knuckles turned white.<\/p>\n

But with great power, comes great responsibility. And when\u00a0inputting patient data<\/a>\u00a0into an EHR, copy-and-pasting can have very serious consequences, including an increased risk of medical errors and possible CMS allegations of upcoding<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

According to a recent\u00a0AHIMA report, 79-90% of physicians use the copy\/paste function in their EHRs, and somewhere between 20-78 percent of physician notes are copied text. With this many physicians relying on the tactic, it\u2019s not surprising to see a growing number of errors made within EHR systems.<\/p>\n

Some doctors still view the technique innocuously. So where does the true danger lie for physicians?<\/p>\n

Dangers of Copy-and-Pasting in Healthcare<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Picture an intensive care unit (ICU), where a patient is in a delicate condition and any small change in treatment or medications could affect the outcome of the case. Using the previous day\u2019s treatment plan the following day is often routine.<\/p>\n

However, the previous day\u2019s plan may not include the most up-to-date information, and copying over old charts could put the patient at fatal risk if crucial new data is lost during the process.<\/p>\n

Or let\u2019s say the same ICU unit was to copy a medical procedure from a previous encounter when updating the treatment plan. If not caught by the billing department, the procedure could potentially be coded for twice and lead to an overpayment and possible audit<\/strong> in the future.<\/p>\n

Copy and pasting are of such great concern that Diane Warner, Director of AHIMA, addressed the issue in front of a large crowd at\u00a0this year\u2019s MGMA. Warner claimed that inappropriately using copy and paste functions in EHRs has led to medical errors and practices inappropriately billing for services they never provided.<\/p>\n

In Warner’s judgment, though, most practices are not upcoding their services on purpose. They\u2019re just trying to ease a workload that has already been besieged by mounting government pressure.<\/p>\n

Should Doctors Copy and Paste At All?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The good news is that there are times when using copy\/paste functionality to streamline workflow is appropriate. The command should be applied for copying demographics,\u00a0regular patient medications<\/a>, problem lists, long-standing allergies, and labs.<\/p>\n

But appropriate use of the functionality is key<\/strong>. Whenever you\u2019re dealing with a new condition, treatment, or patient, it\u2019s always best to manually input medical data. Staff members should verify a patient’s care information individually to ensure accuracy.<\/p>\n

While most of us can agree that copy-and-pasting is a blessing, it carries with it a warning. Be careful when employing this commonly-used functionality. It could get you in hot water faster than you think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you remember the nirvana-like feeling you got the first time someone taught you how to copy and paste? It was like a whole new world of possibilities opened up at your fingertips. No longer would you waste valuable time retyping words over and over again until your knuckles turned white. But with great power, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-growth"],"yoast_head":"\nWill Copy and Pasting in Your EHR Endanger Your Practice?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Copy and pasting can have very serious consequences, including an increased risk of medical errors and possible CMS allegations of upcoding.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/copy-and-pasting-ehr\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Will Copy and 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