Electronic Health Records Topic Archive

FDA Asks Hospitals to Report Safety Glitches in Digital Health Systems

Concern over safety risks posed by health information technology has led the Food and Drug Administration to step up scrutiny of the products, including digital medical records systems on which the government plans to spend billions of dollars in coming years.

The FDA last month asked a network of 350 hospitals it set up across the country to report data on potential hazards from a range of computer-assisted medical devices, according to an agency document obtained by the Huffington Post Investigative Fund.

By Fred Schulte and Emma Schwartz
11 March 2010

Stimulus To Push Electronic Health Records Could Widen 'Digital Divide'

A year after Congress agreed to spend billions of dollars to encourage a national switch to electronic health records, many doctors and hospitals have grown skeptical of the pace and details of the plan.

By Fred Schulte8 March 2010

Experts: Safety Oversight Needed as Patient Records Go Digital

Though electronic health records may greatly improve medical care in the future, the technology poses a host of safety concerns that demand attention to protect patients from harm, witnesses told a government panel meeting in Washington on Thursday.
 
Safety issues are surfacing as the government tees up a plan to spend billions of dollars in stimulus money to help doctors and hospitals adopt the systems. Digitizing medicine is a high priority in the Obama administration’s campaign to reform health care.
 

By Fred Schulte and Emma Schwartz
25 February 2010

FDA Considers Regulating Safety of Electronic Health Systems

Concerned about potential safety risks in health information technology, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration may be moving closer to regulating the systems for the first time. 

In the past two years, the agency has received reports of six patient deaths and several dozen injuries linked to malfunctions in the systems, Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in testimony prepared for a government hearing on Thursday. 

By Fred Schulte and Emma Schwartz
23 February 2010

Shopping for Health Software, Some Doctors Get Buyer’s Remorse

Robert Cameron wasn’t much of a technology buff, but the orthopedic surgeon knew he wanted to get rid of all the paper in his nine-physician practice in Pensacola, Fla. So he bought an electronic medical records system from a California-based company called Acermed. 

By Emma Schwartz29 January 2010

Switch to Electronic Health Records Could Miss Federal Targets

Federal health officials said Wednesday they have cut billions of dollars from the projected cost of a program to push doctors and hospitals to use electronic medical records, suggesting their previous estimates overstated the number of health care providers likely to adopt the technology.

The goal to create a digital health record for every American in the next five years was first set under President George W. Bush. The project picked up steam in the Obama administration, which regards it as vital to controlling soaring health care costs.

By Fred Schulte and Emma Schwartz
30 December 2009