HHS Stops Short Of Calling For Safety Regulation Of Digital Records

The Obama administration Friday urged cooperation between software companies and caregivers to prevent patient harm caused by faulty electronic records. But it stopped short of calling for regulation or a federal requirement to report computer mistakes that pose a risk to patients.

“We are saying to the vendors: Step up and prove your ability to create a code of conduct that would be enforceable, that would bind you voluntarily to reporting safety events,” Dr. Farzad Mostashari, the administration’s coordinator for health information technology, said about the report. “And what we’re saying is: If you don’t step up, we can always look at more classic regulatory approaches.”

That doesn’t go far enough, said Arthur Levin, director of the Center for Medical Consumers, which promotes safety and effectiveness in health care. “These are very baby steps,” he said. “They’re all voluntary. They rely on the goodwill of everybody involved, including the vendor industry, which really hasn’t been willing to admit there may be real problems here.”...