Improving EHR system affects patient care.

• Position: HEALTH RECORDS

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Studies have shown that electronic health records (EHRs) increase the quality of hospital care, but patients at hospitals undergoing conversion to new electronic systems may experience a decrease in their quality of care, according to a recent Rand Corp. study.

The findings, published online by the American Journal of Managed Care, reveal that the quality of some types of serious medical care increased when hospitals had medical records electronically available, but decreased when the systems were newly adopted or highly advanced.

The Rand Corp. researchers conducted a national study using data on hospital EHR systems collected in 2003 and 2006, as well as publicly reported hospital quality data from 2004 and 2007.

They found a 2.6% improvement in the quality of hospital care for patients with heart failure when a basic EHR system was available. However, hospitals working to adopt advanced EHR systems saw a nearly 1% decrease in quality of care for...