Will electronic records raise the legal standard of care and increase malpractice risk?
Originally published in HCPLive.com by Robert J. Mintz, JD
As EHRs are widely adopted and the quantity of information about a patient expands dramatically, does provider liability increase even if the quality of care is vastly improved?
Will electronic records raise the legal standard of care and increase malpractice risk? What happens if the quality of care really does get better but because of all the new and easily accessible information, the standard of care for legal responsibility increases? With EHRs, plaintiff’s lawyers will make the case that greater access to patient information should result in better diagnoses and treatment outcomes. As a result, even as quality increases, the legal standard of care will keep rising too, so that rather than fewer mistakes and fewer lawsuits, there are more of each since the information you “should have known” is now right at your fingertips.
