National Trends in the Safety Performance of Electronic Health Record Systems From 2009 to 2018

Key Points

Question

How did safety performance of electronic health record systems (EHRs) change in the US from 2009 to 2018?

Findings

In this case series using 8657 hospital-year observations from adult hospitals nationwide that used the National Quality Forum Health IT Safety Measure, a computerized physician order entry and EHR safety test, from 2009 to 2018, mean scores on the overall test increased from 53.9% in 2009 to 65.6% in 2018. There was considerable variation in test performance by hospital and EHR vendor.

Meaning

These findings suggest that, despite broad adoption and optimization of EHR systems in hospitals, wide variation in the safety performance of operational EHR systems remains across a large sample of hospitals and EHR vendors, and serious safety vulnerabilities persist in these operational EHRs.

Abstract

This case series examines the safety performance of computerized provider order entry in electronic health record systems in US hospitals from 2009 to 2018.

Abstract

Importance

Despite the broad adoption of electronic health record (EHR) systems across the continuum of care, safety problems persist.

Objective

To measure the safety performance of operational EHRs in hospitals across the country during a 10-year period.

Design, Setting, and Participants

This case series included all US adult hospitals nationwide that used the National Quality Forum Health IT Safety Measure EHR computerized physician order entry safety test administered by the Leapfrog Group between 2009 and 2018. Data were analyzed from July 1, 2018 to December 1, 2019.

Exposure

The Health IT Safety Measure test, which uses simulated medication orders that have either injured or killed patients previously to evaluate how well hospital EHRs could identify medication errors with potential for patient harm.

Main Outcomes and Measures

Descriptive statistics for performance on the assessment test over time were calculated at the overall test score level, type of decision support category level, and EHR vendor level.

Results

Among 8657 hospital-years observed during the study, mean (SD) scores on the overall test increased from 53.9% (18.3%) in 2009 to 65.6% (15.4%) in 2018. Mean (SD) hospital score for the categories representing basic clinical decision support increased from 69.8% (20.8%) in 2009 to 85.6% (14.9%) in 2018. For the categories representing advanced clinical decision support, the mean (SD) score increased from 29.6% (22.4%) in 2009 to 46.1% (21.6%) in 2018. There was considerable variation in test performance by EHR.

Conclusions and Relevance

These findings suggest that despite broad adoption and optimization of EHR systems in hospitals, wide variation in the safety performance of operational EHR systems remains across a large sample of hospitals and EHR vendors. Hospitals using some EHR vendors had significantly higher test scores. Overall, substantial safety risk persists in current hospital EHR systems.