EHR data & patient-reported symptoms often don't align — 6 considerations

Practice Management

Does EHR data accurately depict patient-reported symptoms? A new study published in JAMA Ophthalmology investigated, according to Medscape.

Ann Arbor-based University of Michigan Medical School researchers studied 162 patients' answers to an eye symptom questionnaire between Oct. 1, 2015 and Jan. 31, 2016. Providers input the information into EHRs.

 

Here are six considerations:

 

1. Blurry vision information from the questionnaire did not mirror the information in the EHR for 33.8 percent of patients.

 

2. The researchers also found discrepancies between the questionnaire answers and EHR data for glare (48.1 percent), pain or discomfort (26.5 percent) and redness (24.7 percent).

 

3. Blurry vision was the only symptom more often reported in the patient's EHR than in the questionnaire.

 

4. The study authors rated the overall symptom reporting agreement as poor to fair.

 

5. Researchers found no significant correlation between reporting discrepancies and these factors:

 

• Patient age
• Patient sex
• Physician experience
• Medical scribe's workload
• Urgent or nonurgent anterior segment eye disease presence

 

6. To avoid inconsistencies, the researchers recommend providers gather patient-reported outcomes in a standardized template, and then upload it to an EHR.

 

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