Will Your EMR System Protect You in a Malpractice Lawsuit 10, 15 or 20 Years from Now?

Frightening concerns exist regarding the legal reliability of application based electronic medical record systems. Migration from one vendor to another and the fact that version upgrades may not include exactly the same information or look like the original patient encounter record may compromise the legal protection that the electronic medical record should provide a physician.

The legal reliability of electronic documentation depends on the stability of the file's format. A database EMR software application raises legal concerns when changing from one vendor to another. The legal reliability and authenticity of the document can be compromised during the migration process of digital documents (transferring digital information between two different software/hardware platforms) creating new electronic documents that are not exactly the same as the original file. One is therefore dissuaded from changing vendors because the legal protection of the documents may be at risk.

In addition to vendor migration, there is a concern that database EMR vendors cannot achieve absolute legal protection in a malpractice action because databases can be updated and altered without leaving a traceable account of the changes. As a result, physicians age being advised to print paper hardcopies of any electronic documentation. This creates a need to maintain duplicate systems, both paper and electronic, eliminating the original advantage of an EMR solution.

Our document imaging system utilizes the PDF file format that is an electronic replica of its paper counterpart and is well-established as a legally reliable format in the U.S. Federal Courts.


  back