EHR Accuracy Can Be Improved Through Patient Review

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

When patients review their medication lists and provide feedback, EHR accuracy can be greatly improved.

According to a recent study, How Patients Can Improve the Accuracy of Their Medical Records, “Patient feedback, placed in a useful workflow, can improve medical record accuracy.”

“Improving medical record accuracy and associated challenges have been documented extensively. Providing patients with useful access to their records through information technology gives them new opportunities to improve their records’ accuracy and completeness,” explains the study, published in eGems (Generating Evidence and Methods to Improve Patient Outcomes). “A new approach supporting online contributions to their medication lists by patients of Geisinger Health Systems, an online patient-engagement advocate, revealed this can be done successfully.”

FierceEMR reports that the researchers, from the University of Chicago, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Geisinger Health System, found that patients were eager to give feedback. When asked about their participation in Geisinger Health’s initiative to gain feedback on medication lists prior to seeing the doctor, 30 percent said they completed online feedback forms.

Eighty-nine percent of respondents who filled out feedback forms submitted changes to their medication lists such as updating dosages or frequency or changes to the types of drugs taken. In another review of the forms, 68 percent of the changes were confirmed by a pharmacist.

“Electronic health record (EHR) vendors and developers need to build appropriate capabilities into applications,” concluded researchers. “Continued research and development is needed for enabling healthcare organizations to elicit and process patient information most effectively.”