Health IT Law Blog : Health IT Law Blog : Post & Schell: Law Firm : HIT & Electronic Health Records

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its report on integrated delivery systems (IDSs) in healthcare. The report found that electronic health record systems (EHRs) are able to improve patient care among such IDSs.

Via GAO:

Some IDSs said that using EHRs supports their patient care strategies such as care coordination, disease management, and use of care protocols by increasing the availability of individual patient and patient population data and by improving communication among providers.

All 15 IDSs which took part in this study have implemented EHR systems. Mayo Clinic, one of the participants, reported that "the EHR helps avoid overutilization and duplication of services."  Several other IDSs reported significant savings because of EHR use, including Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin, which reported that its e-prescribing feature reduced "errors related to illegible handwriting and unintentional drug interactions." In addition, Marshfield's EHR requires physicians to consider appropriate "preferred alternatives" for prescription drugs, saving payers and patients $2.5 million in 1 year.

You can find the full report here.

"Health Care Delivery: Features of Integrated Systems Support Patient Care Strategies and Access to Care, but Systems Face Challenges," U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-11-49 November 16, 2010.

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According to the Wall Street Journal's Health Blog:

In letters sent earlier this month to 10 companies, [Senator Chuck] Grassley says that he’s “received complaints” about systems that allow doctors to enter medical orders by computer. (Here’s a copy of the letter.) This is a big deal these days because the stimulus bill provides billions of dollars in federal incentives to encourage doctors and hospitals to start using these sorts of systems.

Grassley asks the companies to send him copies of “complaints and/or concerns” that health-care providers have expressed about the systems. He wants to know whether the companies typically include legal provisions in their contracts that “shift responsibility for errors in the … systems to physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other health care providers.”

And he cites reports that contracts sometimes “include ‘gag orders,’ which prohibit health care providers from disclosing system flaws and software defects.” He asks the companies how many settlement agreements they’ve executed in the last 18 months.

So far, representatives of Cerner, McKesson and Allscripts indicated that they plan to cooperate with Sen. Grassley's request. 

You can find more information on Grassley's letters via the Washington Post, here.

You can see a copy of Grassley's letter to 3M here.

"Chuck Grassley Has a Few Questions for the Health IT Industry," Health Blog (October 26, 2009).

"Electronic medical records not seen as a cure-all," Washington Post (October 25, 2009).

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