Dive Brief:
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has become concerned about multiple reports of trouble with EMR systems.
- Problems the CDC has identified include legacy EMR systems that can't use current coding, different medical coding for the same test from provider to provider, and problems with displays that don't share key patient information in the right order.
- One way to help address health IT safety issues like these is to create a single place where such issues can be reported; the best option might be the Health IT Safety Center proposed by the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act, FDA leaders suggest.
Dive Insight:
Arguably, the only way EMRs will improve their track record will be if some form of centralized safety reporting is instituted. Informal discussions between health IT pros, hospitals and doctors have some value, but they offer no way to separate random concerns from systematic problems, Megan Sawchuk, the lead health scientist for CDC's office of public health scientific services, told Healthcare IT News. "Until aggregated, credible data is available, it will be a challenge for all stakeholders to prioritize their resources to address the most important concerns," Sawchuk said. At the moment, however, many vendor contracts forbid users from sharing negative information about their EMRs. That, too will have to be addressed if EMR safety is to be improved.