Physicians who misuse the "copy-and-paste" feature in patients' electronic health records (EHRs) can face serious consequences, including lost hospital privileges, fines, and malpractice lawsuits. A locum tenens physician in California lost her hospital privileges after repeatedly violating the copy-and-paste policy developed at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. Several physicians have been warned for violations, but she was the only one to lose privileges.
Physicians who misuse the"copy-and-paste" feature in patients' electronic health records can face serious consequences, including lost hospital privileges , fines, and malpractice lawsuits .
Copy-paste practices can save doctors' time when dealing with cumbersome EHR systems, but they also can lead to redundant, outdated, or inconsistent information that can compromise patient care, experts said. More commonly, Medicare contractors identify physicians who unintentionally received overpayments through sloppy copy-and-paste practices, according to a coding and documentation auditor who worked for 10 years at a Medicare contractor in Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania auditor, who now works for a large group practice, said the group has very few copy-and-paste problems because of her role."Not charting responsibly rarely happens because I work very closely with the doctors," she said.Practices could periodically audit medical records for excessive copy-paste use. EHR systems like Epic's can indicate how much of a doctor's note has been copied. But Dowling doesn't know of any practices that do this.
Gore said he and a physician educator who works with physicians on clinical documentation proposed the policy about a decade ago. When physicians on staff were asked to comment, some said they would be opposed to a complete ban, but they generally agreed that copy and paste was a serious problem that needed to be addressed, he said.
Physicians Copy-And-Paste Electronic Health Records Ehrs Consequences Hospital Privileges Fines Malpractice Lawsuits Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital California
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