Three lawyers discuss where culture and risk intersect with electronic health records in the third part of the roundtable on the impact EHRs have on malpractice claims.
While macros, carry forwards, and cut and paste may speed work along, there are pitfalls if they aren’t used properly, according to Todd Bartos, Esq., defense trial lawyer with Stevens & Lee. Using these features too much can make all the data look the same and raise the question of: did the physician take a shortcut and did that shortcut cause harm?
“With EMRs, all the notes look the same; in effect, computers are doing too good a job,” agreed Michael Kelton, Esq., a partner with Abrams Fensterman and director of the firm’s Medical Malpractice Defense Practice. “It results in each and every patient interaction looking almost identical. And plaintiffs’ attorneys will seize on that to suggest that the physician wasn’t actually giving an individualized examination and attention on each patient visit.”
