Duplicate medical records pose a significant risk to patient safety, according to a recent study published in the BMJ Quality & Safety journal. The research reveals that patients with duplicate records are five times more likely to die after hospital admission and three times more likely to require intensive care compared to those with a single medical record. This alarming finding underscores the critical need for improved data integrity and policy changes in health information management to enhance patient safety. The study, conducted in a large US multi-region health system, analyzed medical records of adults aged up to 89 who were admitted to 12 partner hospitals between July 2022 and June 2023. The researchers identified 6086 patients, with 1698 having duplicate records and 4388 without. Using a statistical technique called propensity score matching, they found that patients with duplicate records had significantly higher odds of adverse outcomes. Specifically, 11% of patients with duplicate records died in the hospital, compared to 2.5% without, and their average hospital stay was 32% longer. These patients were also more likely to require emergency interventions (6% vs. 5%), intensive care (46% vs. 19%), and 30-day readmissions (12% vs. 11%). After adjusting for various factors, patients with duplicate records were 30% more likely to be readmitted, 3.5 times more likely to need intensive care, and almost 5 times more likely to die in the hospital. The study authors suggest that duplicate records may prevent healthcare providers from accessing critical information, leading to delays in care or inaccurate treatment decisions. They also propose that the presence of duplicate charts may contribute to inefficiencies in the healthcare system, as medical teams spend extra time navigating between multiple charts, potentially overlooking key details. The findings emphasize the need for further research to understand the full impact of duplicate medical records and to develop targeted interventions to improve data integrity and patient safety. The study authors call for health systems to investigate their own associations, determine causal pathways, and implement mechanisms to prevent duplicate chart creation or conduct data integration expeditiously.
