Study: Important patient data missing from EHRs

Editor's Note

Nearly half of patient face-to-face contacts with health care providers, such as checkups, emergency department visits, and hospital admissions, were missing from electronic health records (EHRs) in this study. The problem is caused by the inability of software systems to talk to each other.

Because of the 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, EHRs have become big business with hospitals and physician practices spending an estimated $3 trillion.

“Policymakers should put more focus on the quality and utility of health information and ways these can be improved, instead of simply tallying up EHR purchases and supposed capabilities, the authors say.

Study outcomes included depression or bipolar diagnosis in the EHR from a 2009 clinical encounter; claims-based counts of outpatient care days (total and behavioral), hospitalizations, and emergency department visits; and comparable counts of face-to-face clinical care days from the EHR.