News Feature | May 22, 2015

EHR Lawsuits Double

Katie Wike

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Gavel

From 2013 to 2014, EHR-related lawsuits reportedly doubled across the U.S.

According to the Doctors Company, a physician-owned medical malpractice insurer, data from 2007-2013 shows EHRs were cited in just 1 percent of lawsuits. That number doubled from 2013 to 2014.

According to iHealth Beat, the top EHR mistakes cited in these lawsuits included:

  • faulty voice-recognition software
  • misinterpretation of EHR drop-down menus
  • reliance on outdated or incorrect records
  • typos that led to medical errors

“There are attorneys now looking for a clean case to sue the vendor,” Keith Klein, a medical doctor and professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA told Computerworld. “This is reality. It is not theoretical. I was approached by Washington, D.C. law firm who had a very clean case for suing a vendor.”

Klein told Politico, “If I’m testifying for a plaintiff, I say, ‘Get the EHR.’If I’m with the defense I say, ‘The EHR is going to be a problem.’ Because it always is.”

The amount of information in EHRs is overwhelming. “This is a fire hydrant,” Klein said. “Try to take a drink out ofit. That’s what it’s like trying to read an EMR.”

EHR errors and inaccuracies could not only cast doubt on physicians, but also diminish clinical research which relies heavily on data from EHRs. “I’ve seen records where someone has copied and pasted from older records, ‘The IV will be removed today,’ over and over again. Well, was it removed?” said Rita Bowen, senior VP of health information management for Healthport.

Bowen says she often sees duplicate data, erroneous data, and copied data in EMRs. But duplicate data isn’t the only hazard. We’ve seen 92-year-old women getting diagnosed as crack addicts because of drop down menus,” she said.