Missing medical information adversely affects care of patients

doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7486.276-a

BMJ 2005;330:276 (5 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7486.276-a

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Missing medical information adversely affects care of patients

London Kunal Khanna

Missing clinical information on patients is common in the United States and may adversely affect the patients� health care, according to a study in JAMA (2005;293:565-71).

The authors, citing an article in the BMJ (1996;313:1062-8), wrote that managing clinical information effectively is an essential part of all medical care. But information on patients such as demographic data, medical history, treatments, test results, and family structure is often unavailable when a doctor greatly needs it, they say.

Peter Smith and colleagues at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center surveyed 253 primary care clinicians during 1614 patients� visits between May and December 2003. For every visit during one half day session, each clinician completed a questionnaire about the characteristics of the patients and the visits and stated whether important clinical information had been missing.

"This is the first direct study of missing clinical information in primary care, in . . . [Full text of this article]

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