Doctors Say EHRs Are Safer Than Paper Charts; Patients Are Split

Most U.S. physicians believe electronic health records are safer than  paper-based medical records, while patients are split over which system is  safer, according to a survey conducted by GfK Roper on behalf of  EHR provider Practice Fusion, Becker’s Hospital Review reports (Rodak, Becker’s Hospital Review, 11/3).

For the physician portion of the survey, 1,220 medical professionals answered  an online questionnaire on Oct. 28. For the patient portion of the survey,  researchers conducted phone interviews with 1,006 U.S. adults between Oct. 21  and Oct. 23 (Miliard, Healthcare IT News, 11/2).

Key Findings

The survey found that:

• 54% of physicians believe that EHRs are safer than paper records. Of those,  63% cited immediate access to records as the top benefit;
• 18% of physicians believe that paper records are safer than EHRs. Of those,  36% cited a lower likelihood of data being breached or stolen as the top  benefit;
• 39% of patients believe that EHRs are safer than paper records. Of those,  77% cited immediate access to records as the top benefit; and
• 47% of patients believe that paper records are safer than EHRs. Of those,  59% cited greater privacy as the top benefit (United Press International,

Source: iHealthBeat

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