Electronic Health Records Give Way to Disasters and Dangerous Intrusions

What if your doctor had no clue what he last ordered for you and no ability to order anything else? This is what can happen when an electronic health record (EHR) system crashes. In 2006, the EHR system at a major hospital crashed. One senior internist, reports the Washington Post, “walked in to find no records on any patients.” He said, “It was like being on the moon without oxygen.” While doctors struggled to keep patients alive, employees from the EHR vendor “ran around with no idea how to work their own equipment.” The internist emphasized, “I didn’t go through all my training to have my ability to take care of patients destroyed by devices that are an impediment to medical care.”