On Nov. 29, 2018, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a viewpoint article titled, “Improving Electronic Health Record Usability and Safety Requires Transparency,” by authors from MedStar Health’s National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare, American Medical Association, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
The opinion piece examines how gag clauses in EHR vendor and healthcare provider contracts block providers from openly addressing EHR usability and safety issues, representing “a market failure.” Despite the 21st Century Cures Act inviting action to help prevent this in 2016, the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) of Health Information Technology has yet to define what constitutes blocking EHR usability and safety information. The article discusses three main criteria the ONC should consider in doing so and why it’s critical to act on this now.
