Health Information Errors Cited Among Top 10 Health IT Hazards

Potential to improve care comes with potential for harm, ECRI Institute warns

Three of the 10 top health technology hazards cited in a report from ECRI Institute deal with errors in information management.

Making the list:

• Patient/data mismatches in EHRs and other health IT systems, an issue on which the Bipartisan Policy Center issued a call to action in June.
• Interoperability failures with medical devices and health IT systems.
• Caregiver distractions from smartphones and other mobile devices.

"While many health IT implementations offer great promise for improving patient care, it must be recognized that these complex technologies also can create new paths to failure," the report states, urging healthcare facilities to pay particular attention to health IT when prioritizing their safety initiatives for 2013...