Survey touts EHR benefits in communications, patient safety

The answers to two key questions pertaining to patient safety often weigh less on the minds of practicing physicians who utilize EHRs, wrote two physician experts on the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s Health IT Buzz blog.

Physicians are more at ease when considering the questions, “Was there something I did today that I shouldn’t have?” and “Is there something I didn’t do that I should have?” thanks to the functionalities of EHR, according to an annual survey of 10,000 physicians.

Results of the 2013 National Ambulatory Medical Care Physician Workflow Survey show that 70 percent of physicians answering the survey felt that their EHR helped by alerting them of an important medication or a laboratory test result. “[T]he larger contours of the perceived impact of [EHRs] are clear: Physicians feel that EHRs improve the quality and safety of the care they deliver,” wrote David Huny, MD, and Amy Helwig, MD, MS.

Moreover, the survey indicates that EHRs improve communication between physicians and members of their care teams. About 60 percent of physicians report that their EHR system faciliated communication among the care team and one-half reported that it improved the management of referrals. Physicians within larger practices (11 physicians or more) experienced slightly greater improvement in communication across the care team, compared to those in solo practices.

Read the blog post here and check out ONC’s brief on the survey here.