4 Ways Electronic Health Records Can Impact Your Medical Care
Patient information is a crucial part of any medical office. Digital technology has made it easier for medical professionals to access information, but it has also created additional problems with digital security. Your personal health can be affected a number of different ways through mistakes made with electronic health records (commonly referred to as EHR). When these mistakes cause physical and emotional pain, you may have the right to a medical malpractice case.
Read through the following four EHR errors that can occur and how they impact your personal life. If any of these circumstances have happened, you have the potential for a malpractice case.
Flawed Data Entry
When you visit a doctor's office, there is often a pile of paperwork that needs to get filled out before your appointment begins. Those papers include your health history, allergies, and personal history. Once the paperwork is handed in, a worker needs to input this data. If the data is not properly inputted, then major problems can occur.
For example, if you have a history of family diseases that is not input, a doctor may miss a diagnosis or specific tests that are needed to help figure out your specific ailments. The same problems can occur if your medical allergies are not properly input to your digital file. A medical professional could end up using medicine or products that cause an allergic reaction in your body.
Mistakes When Transferring Data
When visiting multiple medical offices, you may need files transferred to an alternate office. During the transfer, there are a number of problems that could occur.
- Copy & Paste Data: Instead of properly transferring the data, medical offices may copy and paste the data to another office. This creates a jumbled mess of data that is hard to decipher.
- Missing Data: If the data is not transferred properly, there may be missing elements for your new medical office. This can cause a misdiagnosis or improper treatment.
- Wrong Data: Sometimes, the wrong data may get transferred to a new office. This could cause a medical professional to treat you wrongly and cause possible harm.
Lost Data
EHR files often include a lot of digital files. This includes x-rays, MRI scans, and scans of things like your insurance card. A glitch or user error may cause this information to disappear. Without the scans, a medical professional may not have the ability to compare changes in your body or your future medical needs.
The delays in recovering or replacing the data could delay proper medical care. A lawyer can help determine what damages the delay caused, how it could have been prevented, and what medical office is responsible for the lost data.
Stolen Data
Even worse than losing your personal medical data is a medical office that has the data stolen. Stolen data can have a number of different outcomes on your personal life.
- Stolen Insurance Information: If your insurance information is stolen and used, you may experience major delays in the acquisition of prescription medications. This can cause major side effects and health problems.
- Record Mix-Ups: Stolen data can lead to records being changed and manipulated. During a medical appointment or emergency, this bad data could lead to improper care and further injuries.
- Personal Data: Aside from medical records, your life can be emotionally affected by stolen data. You could run into problems that include stolen bank accounts, social security numbers, and a constant fear of your invasion of privacy. Working with an attorney can help you establish the emotional pain caused in a case.
Hiring an attorney as soon as possible is the best way to set up your malpractice case. Attorneys have the ability to collect a lot of information from doctors to help prove your case and get information on the EHR issues.
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