With the widespread use of electronic health records (EHRs) for many clinical tasks, interoperability with other health information technology (health IT) is critical for the effective delivery of care.1 Providers can reduce patient safety events by improving connections among their electronic health records (EHRs) and their other health information technology (IT) systems. From a database of 1.735 million patient safety event (PSE) reports spanning multiple provider organizations, this AHRQ-funded study found 2625 reports, between 2009 and 2016, that were identified as being health IT EHR interoperability related. Rigorous review further identified 209 EHR interoperability related events.2 The most common events were associated with pharmacy, laboratory, and radiology, and involved poor receiving of EHR information from other IT systems.3 More than 50 percent of events reached the patient, but only 2 percent resulted in patient harm.4 The report conclusion supports the idea that providers should strive to improve EHR interfaces with other health IT systems.
1,2,3,4Adams, K.T.; Howe, J.L.; Fong, A.; Puthumana, J.S.; Kellogg, K.M.; Gaunt, M.; Ratwani, R.M. Applied Clinical Informatics. 8(2):593-602, June 2017.
Source: https://www.ahrq.gov
