The electronic patient record in primary care--regression or progression? A cross sectional study.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To determine whether paperless medical records contained less information than paper based medical records and whether that information was harder to retrieve.

Design

Cross sectional study with review of medical records and interviews with general practitioners.

Setting

25 general practices in Trent region.

Participants

53 British general practitioners (25 using paperless records and 28 using paper based records) who each provided records of 10 consultations.

Main outcome measures

Content of a sample of records and doctor recall of consultations for which paperless or paper based records had been made.

Results

Compared with paper based records, more paperless records were fully understandable (89.2% v 69.9%, P=0.0001) and fully legible

SUBMITTER: Hippisley-Cox J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC162256 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature