Ebola And EHRs: An Unfortunate And Critical Reminder

The recent incident at Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas involving the discharge and later Ebola diagnosis and death of Thomas Eric Duncan has led to a number of theories as to what went wrong.  Initial reports concluded that the hospital's electronic health record (EHR) system was to blame.  However this Health Affairs blog post points out that one of the major failings was a communication lapse that occurred within Mr. Duncan's care team.  According to the authors, the situation in Dallas was due to information failure, and how crucial information was not used appropriately at a key point in the episode of care.  In addition, the authors point out that the information captured by the EHR was not presented to clinicians in a meaningful way that they could not ignore.  This type of information should have been integrated into the providers' workflow and could have led to improved communication across the care team.  Furthermore, EHRs have the potential to actively support decision-making by expanding the scope and quality of information brought to a clinician’s attention.  Finally, EHR systems should be interoperable across all emergency departments and with public health agencies in order to be most effective.  

Click here to read the full Health Affairs Blog Post