Using EMR Reduces Your Risk of a Malpractice Claim

According to a study from Harvard University, physicians who use electronic medical records systems may be less likely to be sued.

“When providers use electronic records in the outpatient setting, the likelihood of a paid malpractice settlement was about two-thirds as high,” said one of the lead authors, David Westfall Bates, MD, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, MA, and professor of health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health.

The study group says their findings “support the hypothesis that EHR adoption and use lead to improved quality of care and patient safety, resulting in fewer adverse events and fewer paid malpractice claims. ” In addition, EHRs may result in more extensive and more legible documentation leading to stronger legal defenses when malpractices lawsuits are filed.

Download Our Free EMR Report

Enter your name and email to get our report “Getting Through the EMR Maze” before moving forward on any EMR decisions and stay up-to-date on the latest EMR and practice management news and advice.

Powered by Subscribers Magnet

About Peter Polack

Peter J Polack is founder of emedikon, a medical practice management consulting firm and president of protodrone, a software development company specializing in medical practice applications. A technology columnist for Ophthalmology Management Magazine, he is a managing partner for a large multi-specialty ophthalmology practice in Florida.

Facebook comments:

Trackbacks

  1. [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jerry Fahrni and Haag-Streit USA, peterpolack. peterpolack said: Using EMR Reduces Your Risk of a Malpractice Claim: According to a study from Harvard University, physicians who u… http://bit.ly/cZe495 [...]

  2. [...] Emedikon LLC for Medical Practice Trends, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: EHR, electronic medical records, Harvard University, [...]

  3. [...] Medicine Safer or More Dangerous? August 13, 2010 By Peter Polack Leave a Comment Recently I wrote about a Harvard study that found evidence that physicians that use electronic medical records [...]

  4. [...] I wrote about a Harvard study that found evidence that physicians that use electronic medical records [...]

Speak Your Mind

*