The Limits of Humans in Data Gathering: Documentation Error Rates in the Electronic Health Record in the Operating Room.

We studied the accuracy of nursing electronic health record (EHR) documentation during surgical procedures focusing on time-stamping of events. In high-end manufacturing these tasks would be considered simple routine with error rates of 0.1% to 0.5%. Documentation accuracy of six key events over 10...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Journal of Medical Systems Vol. 50; no. 1; pp. 1 - 8
Autores principales: Bradley, Andrew R., Barbosa, Abner, Younk, Logan, Rocha, Naila, Nichol, Peter F.
Formato: research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: Springer Nature 2/9/2026
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=191451323&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: ccm
    uiTerm: 191451323
    longDbName: CINAHL Complete
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    dissinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        01485598
        4N0
      jtl: Journal of Medical Systems
      issn: 01485598
      maglogo: N
    pubinfo:
      dt: 2/9/2026
      vid: 50
      iid: 1
      pid: 237
      pub: Springer Nature
      place: New York, New York
    artinfo:
      ui:
        191451323
        191451323
        191451323
        10.1007/s10916-026-02346-9
        191451323
      ppf: 1
      ppct: 7
      formats:
      tig:
        atl: The Limits of Humans in Data Gathering: Documentation Error Rates in the Electronic Health Record in the Operating Room.
      aug:
        au:
          Bradley, Andrew R.
          Barbosa, Abner
          Younk, Logan
          Rocha, Naila
          Nichol, Peter F.
        affil: https://ror.org/03ydkyb10 Department of Surgery, University of Wisconsin School of MedicineUniversity of Wisconsin School of Medicine, and Public Health, H4/746 CSC 600 Highland Ave, 53792, Madison, WI, USA
      sug:
        subj:
          Data Collection
          Human Error Evaluation
          Operating Rooms
          Electronic Health Records Standards
          Nursing Records Standards
          Data Quality Evaluation
          Time
          Task Performance and Analysis
          Charting
          Operating Room Nurses Psychosocial Factors
          Risk Assessment
          Human
          Human Error Trends
          Descriptive Statistics
          Work Environment
          Health Facility Environment
          Surgical Patients
          Patient Identification
          Multitasking Behavior
          Operating Room Nurses Labor Supply
          Anesthesia
          Sutures
          Surgical Count Procedure
          Clinical Documentation Improvement
          Hospitals, Pediatric
          Chi Square Test
          Pearson's Correlation Coefficient
          Human Error Prevention and Control
          Simple Linear Regression
          Analysis of Variance
          Logistic Regression
          Odds Ratio
          Confidence Intervals
      ab: We studied the accuracy of nursing electronic health record (EHR) documentation during surgical procedures focusing on time-stamping of events. In high-end manufacturing these tasks would be considered simple routine with error rates of 0.1% to 0.5%. Documentation accuracy of six key events over 10 consecutive weeks was measured. Error rates, delays in documentation, and environmental variables including operating room (OR) size, number of nurses per OR, and service line were recorded. Statistical methods included regression models, correlation analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA). From 202 cases, 98.10% of 1240 events were captured, revealing an overall error rate of 17.01%. Delays in documentation were observed in 51.40% of events. Larger ORs, multiple nurses documenting, and delays over 20 min were linked to higher error rates. Error rates increased from 1.30% without delays to 38.43% with delays exceeding 20 min. Documentation error rates for time-stamping tasks were at a minimum 2.6 times higher than predicted and increased significantly with delays in documentation indicating that environmental complexity and stress diminish human tasks performance as well as recall of events. Our data indicate that error rates in the healthcare space are higher than in the manufacturing space for tasks of identical or similar complexity. Given the certainty and immutability of human error in task performance, our findings highlight the need for technologies to improve accuracy of EHR documentation in this critical and high complexity space.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
    refInfo:
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N