EMRs pose new legal risks

With pressure mounting to get EMRs into physician offices, little thought has been given to the legal issues this technology may generate. However, there are several legal concerns related to EMR use that ought to be on the radars of all doctors, experts say. For one thing, an overarching concern is that Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, approved by the U.S. Supreme Court in December 2006, make any electronically-stored data discoverable in a trial--and those details can catch doctors off guard.

This means that if a nurse records information under a doctor's login and password, and the information is incorrect, a doctor may be held liable for any misinformation. Also, doctors may run into problems if the EMR's metadata (the time stamp indicating who entered what and when) conflicts with his or her version of events.

Perhaps even more vexing, it's still not clear what the legal status of an EMR is. At present, it's still in question whether all EMRs meet the legal definition of being medical records, a concern that could become important in some forms of legal disputes over patient care.

To learn more about these issues:
- read this AMNews piece (sub. req.)

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