Monday, June 01, 2009

Copying and pasting in EMRs

---was noted commonly, in about 25% of patient records, in the VA system. The conclusion of the paper:

We speculate that copying and pasting of exams degrades the quality of the medical record, and that studying this behavior is integral to our understanding of phenomenology of the electronic medical record.

1 comment:

PookieMD said...

EMRs eliminate some errors and introduce others--such as the copying and pasting of exams, problem lists and medication lists. However, the copying function of the EMR is one of it's time saving functions! Work arounds such as copying introduce errors, which should surprise no one. But the key questions is: what is the impact IF ANY on the copying of the physical exam?