EHRs associated with fewer malpractice claims, study indicates

Physicians who use electronic health records (EHRs) may be less likely to have malpractice claims filed against them, according to a new study.

Researchers used a major malpractice insurer's closed-claims data for Massachusetts physicians who were covered between 1995 and 2007 and merged them with data from surveys given to a random sample of Massachusetts physicians in 2005 and 2007. Closed-claims data were available for 275 physicians, while survey data from both surveys were available for 189 physicians. For each physician, the authors calculated the number of insured years before and after adoption of EHRs and examined whether an association existed between EHR use and malpractice claims. The results were published online as a research letter June 25 by Archives of Internal Medicine.

Twenty-seven (14.3%) of the 189 physicians surveyed in both 2005 and 2007 were named in one or more malpractice claims. The 275 physicians who were surveyed in 2005, 2007, or both years had 51 unique malpractice claims, 49 of which occurred before EHRs were adopted and two of which occurred afterward. A lower rate of malpractice claims was associated with EHR use (estimated relative risk, 0.16 [95% CI, 0.04 to 0.71]).

The authors acknowledged that unmeasured variables, such as the extent of a physician's experience with EHRs, may have affected their results and that their findings may not be generalizable to other settings, among other limitations. However, they concluded that although their study was relatively small, it suggested that EHRs may reduce and do not appear to increase malpractice claims. “The reduction in claims seen in this study among physicians who adopted EHRs lends support to the push for widespread implementation of health information technology,” they wrote.