Electronic Health Records Improve Nursing

U.S. nurses working with electronic health records consistently reported improvements in nursing care and better health outcomes, researchers say. Lead author Ann Kutney-Lee and co-author Deena Kelly, both of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, said the study involved more than 16,000 nurses working at 316 hospitals in four states.

The study, published in the Journal of Nursing, found having a basic electronic health records system was associated with better outcomes independently of nurse staffing -- indicating that both play an important role in quality of care. In addition, nurses in hospitals with fully implemented basic electronic health records were significantly less likely to report unfavorable patient safety issues, frequent medication errors and low quality of care, the study said...