Electronic health records (EHR) may have the un-intentional side effect of information overload for doctors

March 6th, 2013

A recent article written by POLITCO pro discusses a research letter that was published in the JAMA Internal Medicine. This letter finds that electronic health records may have the un-intended effect of information overload for doctors. The study suggests that with the number of alerts that doctors are receiving, it is possible for medical providers to miss important alerts for their patients.  About 30 percent of the doctors surveyed from June- November of 2010, reported an occurrence where they missed an alert, thereby resulting in delays in care for patients. The letter does not discuss the rate that providers overlooked patient’s test results when solely relying upon paper records. The research letter brought to light that primary care doctors that were more comfortable with the EHR system were less likely to report missing results.