A group of Stanford and Harvard researchers assessed the association between electronic health records (EHR) use and the quality of care in a national survey and were suprised to find that EHR use made no difference in 14 of the 17 ambulatory qulaity indicators. They expected better quality from physicians using EHRs.
In 2 quality areas : not prescribing tranquilizers for depression and not ordering routine urinalysis in general medical examinations - doctors using EHRs performed significantly better than those who did not. But in the area of prescribing statins for patients with high cholestrol, physicians using EHRs performed significantly worse than those who did not.
The researchers said sophisticated EHR systems can be a valuable tool for physicians in improving care in outpatient settings, but it is not sufficient to have an EHR system that provides patient data and decision support, physicians have to be willing to act on that input.
The study is published in the July 9 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. 2007;167:1400-1405 "Electronic health record use and the quality of ambulatory care in the United States" Read the abstract .
Read the press release.
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