An advisory board of the EHR Safety Institute (Danville, Pennsylvania) has been formed by a panel of national authorities on the subject to develop industry-wide approaches and policies to help healthcare organizations use EHRs safely and effectively.

"The EHR has the potential to impact the life of every American," said Homer Chin, MD, medical director for Clinical Information Systems, Kaiser Permanente Northwest Region. "We want to help healthcare providers optimize their use of information technology to enhance the quality and safety of care." But the organization noted journal reports of errors related to EHR use.

The panel said it will define and disseminate "best practices" that promote safe patient care, said James Walker, MD, chief medical information officer at Geisinger Health System (Danville) and director of the Institute.

"We believe strongly in the benefits of EHRs and want to minimize the risk that EHR use will have adverse effects."

"The EHR Safety Institute's mission is to ensure that no patient is harmed by the use of an EHR," Walker said. "Our advisory board represents many of the country's leading experts on EHR safety. We look forward to raising awareness, filling information gaps, and establishing standards for safe EHR use."

The Institute's goals include informing healthcare organizations, EHR vendors, and policy makers about the need for EHR safety and ways to deal with specific EHR safety issues.