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Study: EMRs can cut paid malpractice settlements
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I would caution using this study as a justification for EMR:
1) Coorelation does not show causation; practices adopting EMR may be the larger, more sophisticated practices that also have on-going risk management programs and education.
2) EMR makes it very easy to just "click and populate". Thus, EMR can provide a false sense of E&M documentation completeness, which if shown to be a consistent pattern, could be used by the prosecution - much the same as having a detailed Compliance Plan that is neither updated nor followed.
I support EMR adoption 100% and have been a very successful adopter of EMR (since 2000); I just think physicians should be accurately aware of EMR's hidden costs, significant benefits, and potential early ROI if planned properly.
Blue Oak Consulting LLC
mmaglothin@cox.net
Calling something a "trend" that didn't reach statistical significance means that there is no trend. To be clear, there is no association, no causality, no support in this article for the notion that EMR use has any effect at all on the number of settled malpractice claims. This is what we used to call a negative result. Trying to spin it into something it's not is intellectually dishonest, and in this case promises yet another "benefit" from EMR adoption that has no scientific basis.






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