Psychiatric Readmission Rates 30% Lower When Data Within EMRs Accessible To Non-Psychiatrists

Psychiatric readmission rates are 40% lower at United States hospitals that maintain patients’ psychiatric information in an electronic medical record (EMR) and allow non-psychiatric physicians serving the patient to access the records. At hospitals that do not store the records electronically or do not allow access, 7% of psychiatric patients were readmitted within seven days. At hospitals that stored the records electronically and allowed access, the seven-day psychiatric readmission rate was 4%. The findings were reported in “Separate May Not Be Equal: A Preliminary Investigation Of Clinical Correlates Of Electronic Psychiatric Record Accessibility In Academic Medical Centers” by . . .