Electronic health records more accurately portray individuals’ medication lists when paired with a community health information exchange and electronic prescribing database, according to a study published Monday in the American Journal of Managed Care, EHR Intelligence reports (Bresnick, EHR Intelligence, 10/21).
Details of Study
For the study, researchers analyzed EHR data for 858 patients who were admitted at two New York hospitals in the same health care system between September 2010 and April 2011. Overall, the patients were prescribed a total of 7,731 medications (Pfoh et al., AJMC, 10/20).
Physicians at the hospitals were able to access:
- The EHR system;
- A commercial medication database that included information on filled prescriptions from a country-wide e-prescribing network; and
- A regional health information organization’s HIE.
Researchers then compared data from the three sources with medications lists that were compiled by patients and verified.
Findings
According to the study:
- The EHRs captured 80% of patients’ medications accurately (EHR Intelligence, 10/21);
- The commercial medication database accurately captured 45%; and
- The HIE accurately captured 37%.
However, when all three data sources were combined, they captured 91% of patients’ medication lists accurately (AJMC, 10/20).
The researchers wrote that combining data sources on patient medication lists would help providers “improve patient safety by improving patients’ recall of their own medication history and allergy information, as well as by reducing medication discrepancies”.
