Stanford Researchers Find EHRs Do Not Improve Quality

Electronic health records, when paired with clinical decision support software, do not necessarily improve health care quality, according to a Stanford University study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Researchers studied data from more than 250,000 outpatient visits between 2005 and 2007 and found that only one index of care quality -- diet counseling for high-risk adults -- out of 20 scored significantly higher in clinics using EHRs compared with clinics using paper-based records.

• "Electronic Records Don't Improve Outpatient Care, Stanford Study Indicates" (Ostrow, Bloomberg, 1/24).
• "Quality Gains Elusive With EHRs" (Gever, MedPage Today, 1/24).
• "Going Digital May Not Improve U.S. Patient Care" (Steenhuysen, Reuters, 1/24).