The Flaws Of Electronic Records

Drexel University's Scot Silverstein is a leading critic of the rapid switch to computerized medical charts, saying the notion that they prevent more mistakes than they cause is not proven.

Computer mistakes like the one that produced incorrect prescriptions for thousands of Rhode Island patients are probably far more common and dangerous than proponents of electronic medical records believe, says Drexel University's Scot Silverstein. Flawed software at Lifespan hospital group printed orders for low-dose, short-acting pills when patients should have been taking stronger, time-release ones, the Providence-based system disclosed in 2011. Lifespan says nobody was harmed.

But Silverstein, a physician and adjunct professor of health-care informatics who is making a name for himself as a strident critic of electronic health records, says the Lifespan breakdown is part of a much larger problem. "We're in the midst of a mania right now" as traditional patient charts are switched to computers, he said in an interview in his Lansdale home. "We know it causes harm, and we don't even know the level of magnitude. That statement alone should be the basis for the greatest of caution and slowing down."...