Addressing Unique Risks of “Copy and Paste” in Electronic Health Records

The “copy and paste” function of electronic health record systems (EHRs) allows users to easily duplicate information such as text, images and other data within or between documents. While MLMIC recognizes this function offers convenience and efficiency to healthcare providers, it also poses unique liability risks when that information is either inaccurate or outdated.

The Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety, a multi-stakeholder collaboration to improve the safe use of information technology in healthcare, recently addressed the use of the “copy and paste” function in electronic health records. It offers four safe practice recommendations when using this functionality. For more detailed information on this subject, click on the links below:

• The following article – Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety Releases Recommendations for Safe Use of Copy and Paste in EHRs – originally appeared in ECRI Institute’s February 2016 Risk Management Reporter newsletter as part of ECRI Institute’s Healthcare Risk Control program.

• More information is available at ecri.org/hit/safe-practices.