Electronic medical records (EMRs) are the future for providing better, more timely medical care.

It is important that a national system be built, which is efficient, accurate and protects patient privacy.

The Veterans Administration system for computerized medical records—also often called electronic medical records or EMRs—was the only system studied in this research. The VA has won high praise for the development and use of its system.

There are other health care systems which have used this type of record for some time, such as Kaiser Permanente, the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic, to name only three.

The study’s value is limited in that it studied only one system. This study shows, again, EMRs are not magic. They can only be as effective as their users.

In the full item, the news is that 8% of doctors in the study did not follow up when an electronic alert signaled a problem had been found in a critical test.

What Can You Do?

• Any time you have a test which is considered important or critical, find out when the results are due and when you may expect a call from the doctor.
• If you do not hear from the doctor, never assume no news is good news. That is what patients like to think. Who wants trouble?
• Call to ask about your test results. If they are not back yet, ask when they are expected.
• Keep focused on getting your results until you know what they are.
• This study does not mean you should assume the great majority of doctors are not following up on priority tests. It does suggest that you need to stay on your own case until you have the facts.

U. S. News and World Report/HealthDayNews

“ Even an advanced, computerized medical-record system with alerts cannot guarantee that patients will receive timely follow-up care when imaging tests turn up signs of trouble, new research suggests.

Our findings suggest that an electronic medical record that facilitates transmission and availability of critical imaging results to the health care provider through either automated notification or direct access of primary report does not eliminate the problem of missed test results even when one or more health care providers read the results,” write the authors of a study in the Sept. 28 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.”

Source: U.S. News and World Report, September 28, 2009

Citation: Archives of Internal Medicine, September 28, 2009