EHR’s Kill 1000 People a Day! Injure 10,000. No One Cares!

"Recent senate subcommittee hearing, was revealed that >> 1,000 people r killed and 10,000 injured every day from EHR related issues.”

This tweet by @MtnMD jumped out at me yesterday. I read it three times before I clicked on the link which led me to this web page. The word Sepsis immediately made me think of hospital acquired infections (HAI) which, by the way, my friend’s father recently suffered from after having a new pacemaker installed. HAI’s made me think of the huge number of preventable medical errors and mistakes that kill nearly 400,000 a year. 

Surely the doctor was confused. Or did she make a mistake? I inquired to the doctor and got a vague reply. In inquired again and then got this. “Yes, I posted links. This was from a senate subcommitted hearing. 1000’s of links, Google.” Apparently @MtnMD stood by her claim.

The Facts

Unfortunately @MtnMD is mixed up. She made a preventable mistake. The fact is that medical errors and mistakes are a leading cause of death and injury in the United States. I’ve done my research and shared information about this many times on another Twitter account I operate. But it’s very clear that if you read the information that's available, EHR’s are not blamed as a primary cause of these deaths and injuries.

EHR's Role?

I’m sure some of these deaths and injuries could be attributed to poor EHR software and bad workflow. But who makes the final decision as to the care provided? Does the EHR software actually order the medications and procedures? And 1000 people a day killed by software EVERY DAY and the entire population is not up in arms about it? C’mon!

Excuse for Poor Judgement?

Indeed, the United States trails behind other developed nations in implementing electronic medical records for its citizens. If anything, more widespread use of EHR’s would decrease these deaths and injuries; not increase them as some physicians would seem to prefer so as to give them a Red Herring to throw others off the trail of their own likely incompetence.

What’s the Physicians Role?

I seem to recall something along the lines of “First, do no harm.” Secondly it would seem that physicians like @MtnMD should actually read what they're basing their decisions on and referring as fact to others before blindly marching ahead, endorsing and sharing it. Maybe that’s the cause of all these deaths and injuries after all: filtering information via prejudiced glasses and blinding acting on it without any critical thought?

First do no harm. Indeed.