Electronic health record (EHR) system issues degrade the data sharing and communication needed to inform safe patient care. This newspaper feature discusses problems with the new Veterans Affairs EHR system from the patient and family perspective in the context of diagnostic and treatment delay.

Patients with rare diseases present diagnostic challenges. This article introduces the potential for improvements in diagnosis that telemedicine brings to the process through enabling access to appropriate expertise previously limited by geography. 

The operating room environment harbors particular patient safety hazards. Drawing from 1137 perioperative medication error reports submitted over a 1-year period, this analysis found that more than half of the recorded incidents reached the patient and the majority of those stemmed from communication breakdowns during transitions or handoffs. The authors provide recommendations to reduce risks of error, including using barcode medication administration, standardizing handoff procedures, and stocking prefilled syringes.

As they become more prevalent, electronic medical records (EMRs) are being used to improve safety in increasingly creative ways. This newspaper article reports on efforts to engage patients in reviewing their medication lists by providing them with access to EMR systems in order to detect and correct discrepancies in data.

This magazine article reports on cases in which outsourcing the interpretation of radiology tests contributed to patient harm.

This newspaper article reports how a missed test result alert led to a disease-free transplant patient being infected with hepatitis.

This article reports on the inconsistent use of the Department of Defense electronic medical records system and how this has led to medical errors and delays in care for US veterans.