Florida Board Member Recommends Statewide Warning on EMR Errors

Here’s an interesting story from Florida:

A Florida Board of Medicine member wants the board to issue a statewide warning about EMRs, following an incident in which an OB-GYN missed an abnormal Pap smear and blamed the EMR. The OB-GYN punished the EMR by replacing it, while the Board of Medicine punished the OB-GYN with a $20,000 fine, a risk management review, and 100 hours of community service. The board member, a dermatologist, said “”I think the Department of Health needs to put out a warning to physicians that they need to look at their programs’ default settings. This year we have seen as many if not more medical records violations from electronic medical records as we saw from hand-written records violations.”

I’m not sure what benefit the Department of Health issuing a warning would do. I know I’ve never personally seen a warning from the health department (outside of the major news ones). One thing is clear to everyone involved with EMR or not. EMR isn’t the secret potion with no issues. Doctors are still accountable for the care.