Electronic health record–related safety concerns: A cross‐sectional survey
Abstract
Federal electronic health record (EHR)-related initiatives are leading to rapid increases in their adoption. Despite their benefits, EHRs also introduce new risks that can lead to serious safety events. We conducted a Web-based survey of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management and the American Health Lawyers Association to elicit perceptions regarding the frequency and types of EHR-related serious safety events. We received 369 responses. The majority (66%) worked for large hospitals and health systems with varying degrees of EHR adoption. More than half (53%) of respondents reported at least one EHR-related serious safety event in the previous 5 years, and 10% reported more than 20 events. EHR workflow (63%), user familiarity with the EHR system (63%), and integration with existing systems (59%) were most frequently endorsed as variables associated with EHR-related serious safety events. Because EHR-related safety concerns are underreported, organizations should consider implementing robust measures of EHR safety within their institution as a key step for mitigating these concerns.
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Existing literature on the benefits of electronic records is largely U.S. or primary care based and reports potential rather than actual benefits, with a large proportion of this evidence reporting the potential for electronic records to improve patient safety.
“Existing literature on the benefits of electronic records is largely U.S or primary care based [18–34] and reports ‘potential’ rather than actual benefits; with a large proportion of this evidence reporting the potential for electronic records to improve patient safety [19, 21, 23, 27–30].”
From Exploring the implementation of an electronic record into a maternity unit: a qualitative study using Normalisation Process Theory (2017) · cites this paper as [20]
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- Authors
- Menon, S., Singh, H., Meyer, A. N. D., Belmont, E., & Sittig, D. F.
- Affiliations
- Houston VA Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety
- MaineHealth (US)
- Research interests center on the Design, development, implementation, and evaluation of all aspects of clinical information systems
- Venue
- Journal of Healthcare Risk Management
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2014-07
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 14-26
- ISSN
- 1074-4797 (ISSN-L)
- 2040-0861
- OpenAlex
- W2099701690
- Cited by
- 29
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 9.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Healthcare Risk Management (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Health Information Management › Electronic Health Records Systems
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Emergency Medical Services › Patient Safety and Medication Errors
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Health Information Management › Medical Coding and Health Information
- Keywords
- electronic health records, patient safety, EHR adoption, healthcare risk management
- MeSH terms
- Cross-Sectional Studies, Humans, Surveys and Questionnaires, Risk Management, United States, Medical Errors, Workflow, Electronic Health Records, Patient Safety
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