July 19, 2012
Due to the fact that each person’s medical records are written by hand, thousands of patients are affected by medical errors that occur because of a lack of information availability or misinterpretation of patient information. Some of these mistakes have even resulted in the filing of Raleigh Medical Malpractice lawsuits.
In order to combat this problem, many hospitals and doctor’s offices are switching over to a more automated version of electronic record keeping. According to a report from WRAL News, Duke University Health Systems recently made the switch over to an electronic system, with officials for Duke specifically stating that the change was made in order to cut both risks of mistakes and costs.
Many facilities like Duke are making the switch after a team of researchers from the VA Boston Healthcare System published a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine that showed an 84 percent decrease in medical errors when electronic records were in use.
The system will now allow doctors at three different facilities to share patient information, such as lab reports and test results, with one another and will also allow patients secure access to their own records from a computer.
The North Carolina Personal Injury Lawyers with HensonFuerst Injury Lawyers re hopeful the systems will reduce mistakes, but would encourage anyone who has suffered from a medical error to look into their legal options.
