Benefits Of Electronic Health Records Outweigh Risks, Survey Finds

Main Category: IT / Internet / E-mail
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 30 Nov 2007 - 11:00 PDT

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Sixty percent of adults believe the benefits of using electronic health records outweigh the potential privacy risks, according to a recent Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive poll, the Wall Street Journal Online reports. The survey, conducted from Nov. 12 to Nov. 14, included 2,153 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

According to the survey, 63% of adults believe EHRs could significantly decrease medical errors and 55% believe EHRs could significantly reduce health care costs. In addition, 67% of adults said the use of EHRs could improve quality of care by reducing duplicative or unnecessary tests, and 74% said they believe patients could receive better care based on scientific knowledge if physicians and researchers were able to share information more easily using EHRs.

However, 51% of adults said that using EHRs would make it more difficult to ensure patient privacy (Bright, Wall Street Journal Online, 11/28).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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