Survey respondents say EHRs save lives

One in five healthcare providers using a proprietary electronic health record (EHR) system reported that using it helped save the life of one or more patients in a recent nationwide survey of more than 1,500 medical professionals. Sixty percent of respondents also said that the technology allows them to provide better care to patients.

According to those surveyed by Practice Fusion, a free, Web-based platform, the EHR feature with the most potential to prevent life-threatening medical errors was the ability to access to patients' health records anywhere at any time (70%), followed by allergy and drug interaction alerts (54%) and the absence of handwriting issues (53%).

When asked about their experience on paper records, the medical professionals surveyed cited lost or missing paperwork as the most common cause of potential medical errors (57%), followed by illegible handwriting (45%).

Practice Fusion conducted the survey via the Internet with a national sample gathered through the company's platform. Survey respondents were asked to provide answers to a series of multiple-choice questions.

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