Fixing a broken record

Abstract

Two decades later, these folders were bulging with photocopies, printouts and faxes of test results, but the medical profession was slow to adopt a digital remedy. Since the United States began its big push in 2009, the digitalization of US medical records has soared. Data from the US Department of Health and Human Services show that in 2017, 96% ofhospitals and 86% of physicians' offices in the United States had access to electronic health records. Wachter recalls the case of a 16-year-old patient who, in 2013, experienced a massive drug overdose at the UCSF Medical Center after a doctor entered the dosage in milligrams, as he would for an adult, without realizing that the computer expected the dosage to be given in milligrams per kilogram, as would be done for a child. Halamka stands by the recommendation as being reasonable, but says that when combined with other changes, including the enactment in 2010 of the US Affordable Care Act, extended patient privacy requirements and an updated version of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, physicians have become overloaded.