Accuracy and completeness of electronic patient records in primary care

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Abstract
Family practitioners and other staff working in primary care require comprehensive and accurate data on patients at the point-of-care if they are to provide high quality health services to their patients. Electronic patient records are an effective method of achieving this objective, by dispensing with the need to use difficult to access, and often illegible, paper-based records. Hence, the implementation of electronic patient records in primary care is a key objective of many health care systems, including both the USA and UK.1 This reflects a growing recognition of the potential benefits of electronic records on the safety, quality and efficiency of healthcare. Electronic patient records underpin many information technology initiatives in primary care, such as screening for identifying patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease, call–recall systems for asthma and other long-term disease management programmes, computerized decision support systems for prescribing, electronic ordering of tests and electronic referral systems to secondary care. These are all, however, dependant on comprehensive and accurate coded data.