Health Affairs: Identifying Electronic Health Record Usability And Safety Challenges In Pediatric Settings

On Nov. 5, 2018, the health policy journal Health Affairs published an article by MedStar Health’s National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare and its collaborators titled, “Identifying Electronic Health Record Usability and Safety Challenges in Pediatric Settings.”

It reported that electronic health records (EHRs) may present a significant risk to the health and safety of children. Of 9,000 analyzed pediatric reports more than one third described a medication error that was related to EHR usability. The findings emerged from the analysis of pediatric patient safety event reports that were likely to be related to EHRs and medication, gathered from three healthcare systems.

Learn more about the findings, related stakeholders, and calls to action in MedStar’s press release: “Additional Safety Measures Recommended After Study Finds EHR Usability Issues Pose Risk to Children.”

Raj Ratwani, PhD, director of MedStar’s Human Factors Center and a lead researcher and author, also discussed the study further on Nov. 6 as part of a Health Affairs briefing on its full “Patient Safety” issue, where numerous article authors commented on the best and latest research on this topic. Click here to read more and watch the recorded webcast.

Photo credit: Health Affairs.