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Unhappy Camper (Vol. 1 , Issue 13)

Let’s get real here.  Among the many spurious claims made by physician ‘champions’ promoting EHR on this web site is that adopting an EHR will result in “decreased malpractice rates” or that “Malpractice carriers have discounts for those using EMRs”  Sorry, this is simply not true, at least not here in Rhode Island.

This past week I personally called each of the malpractice coverage organizations known to me and even checked with my insurance broker to see if there were any others big carriers that I missed.  There may have been some minor players in the market that were skipped, but specifically, I checked with the appropriate representatives of Lifespan/RISE, Care New England, ProMutual/ProSelect, Norcal, and MMJUA. All representatives were uniform in their answer:  “No, our companies do not offer discounts to physicians based on utilizing an EHR, and while such discounts might be up for consideration in the future, there is currently no good data that indicates that using an EHR lowers the occurrence of medical malpractice events.”

In fact, more than one representative expressed the concern to me that EHR usage may actually increase malpractice exposure, seeing as it makes the discovery process for plaintiff attorneys that much easier.  Malpractice attorneys love EHR and busily promote its adoption as seen at http://malpracticeattorneys.net/benefits-of-emrehr-software.html . If you want a real scare, read what I have previously pointed out in Unhappy Camper Vol. 1, Issue 3 at http://www.docehrtalk.org/messageboard/2010/08/13/unhappy-camper-vol-1-i...

Writing in the Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123681586452302125.html?KEYWORDS=Obama%2... , Drs. Groopman and Hartzband of Harvard Med declared “The impact of medication errors on malpractice costs is likely to be minimal, since the vast majority of lawsuits arise not from technical mistakes like incorrect prescriptions but from diagnostic errors, where the physician makes a misdiagnosis and the correct therapy is delayed or never delivered.  There is no evidence that electronic medical records lower the chances of diagnostic error.”

All of this should not be surprising.  The practice of quality medicine is not based on the use of an EHR, it is based on practicing quality medicine.  And quality medicine should be practiced with the eye toward the patient, not toward the bean-counters of Meaningful Use.  To mitigate that statement somewhat, understand that I am, indeed, a proponent of EHR adoption, but only when promoted and used correctly and ethically. 

A good review of this matter by Patricia King is presented on-line at: http://www.netdoc.com/Physician-Practice-Articles/General-Medical-Practi... She cites only three regional carriers in the nation that are experimenting with malpractice insurance discounts for EHR use (when combined with a host other criteria); none issues policies in Rhode Island.

Rather amusingly, while doing this research I also discovered that the 1-800 phone number for MMJUA listed in the current 2010-2011 Yellow Pages, White Pages, and YellowBook has now been reassigned—to a telephone sex talk line.  It’s enough to make one keep the old phone numbers active simply so it won’t get reassigned as in this unfortunate case. But it’s not just old phone numbers that can go bad, old web site addresses do also, and with great regularity.  A few years ago the old URL for the Warwick Police Department was dropped in favor of a new address.  But to my (and their) surprise their old URL subsequently got picked up by a dating service, and not just to date cops; so be warned that such shenanigans can and do happen.

Happy Halloween.