A new post from Dark Daily says that a study shows too many electronic alerts cause nearly 30% of primary care physicians to overlook essential clinical laboratory test results. This according to researchers, including Hardeep Singh (pictured left), M.D., MPH, who led the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center research team. Unfortunately, it looks like EHR systems are plagued by ‘alert overload.’ Which is what we’d expect, though, in an industry producing lackluster products.
In total, 5,001 VA physicians were invited to participate in the study, and of the 2,590 primary care physicians (PCPs) who did, some 29.8% overlooked test results from an EHR alert system on at least one occasion. Singh and his researchers’ survey findings suggested three factors that could lead to missed results in EHRs: