Study: EHRs improve care for patients with diabetes

EHR use in clinical settings helped drive down emergency room visits and hospitalizations for patients with diabetes, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Examining medical records of 169,711 diabetic patients (over one year old) before and after the implementation of Kaiser Permanente (KP) HealthConnect, its EHR system, researchers found that patients visited the emergency room 29 fewer times per 1,000 patients and were hospitalized 13 fewer times per 1,000 patients annually after the implementation, according to the study.

Overall, lead author Mary Reed, DrPH, KP division of research staff scientist, and colleagues found that annual emergency room visits dropped 5.5 percent, from 519 visits per 1,000 diabetes patients before EHRs to 490 visits per 1,000 diabetes patients following implementation. Concurrently, annual hospitalizations decreased 5.2 percent, from 239 per 1,000 diabetes patients before EHRs to 252 per 1,000 diabetes patients afterward.

The researchers discovered no significant change in the number of office visits for patients with diabetes before and after HealthConnect was implemented.

"Using the electronic health record in the outpatient setting improved the quality of care in ways that cumulatively resulted in fewer negative events," said Reed in a statement on the findings. "A reduction in the number of emergency department visits represents not just improvements in diabetes care, but the cumulative effect of the EHR across many different care pathways and conditions."