85% of EHR Alerts to Providers and 95% of Alerts to Medical Assistants Went Unread
Hey, let’s design a healthcare system backward. Let’s make an EHR based on billing and covering the doctor’s ass. Sounds brilliant, right? Well, that’s exactly what has happened. Notes you receive from other doctors are unreadable and filled with buffed bullshit. And how about those alerts or warnings that the EHR gives off?
Investigators aimed to reduce rates of anticholinergic prescriptions through provider and patient-based EHR alerts. These nudges were designed to trigger staff at 10 primary care clinics to play an educational video for patients in preparation for one-on-one clinician visits. But engagement with the alerts was too low to determine any effect, reported Noll Campbell, PharmD, MS, of the Indiana University Center for Aging Research at Regenstrief Institute and Purdue University College of Pharmacy.
In fact, fully 85% of alerts to providers and 95% of alerts to medical assistants went unread during the course of the study, Noll said.
It’s time to redesign EHRs. It is time to redesign primary care. It is time to redesign healthcare.
Wanna know why? It’s the old game of “tag-you’re-it.” Doctor was informed that patient’s heart rate was 25, did not respond. Tag, you’re it! Remember, it’s not really about keeping the patient alive – it’s about assigning blame for their death. Every alert is an attempt to shrug off responsibility.