The New York Times reports in its health section today that "researchers studying office procedures among primary care physicians found evidence that more than 7 percent of clinically significant findings were never reported to the patient."

The article explains the study, led by Dr. Lawrence P. Casalino, an associate professor at Weill Cornell Medical College, and continues on to encourage the understanding of importance of the link between best practices and proper results. Best practices don't have to just occur within the exam or operating rooms; best practices and standards of care begin at the administrative and office levels.

According the article's reporting of the study's results, "unsurprisingly, practices that only used electronic medical records had lower failure rates than those that only used paper documents. But offices that used a combination of paper and electronic documents had the worst of all."

The study suggestts that a uniform health document system needs to be put in place. Considering the rapid evolution of the internet and the capability of the computer, medical health facilities should strive to adopt an electronic medical record system.

To read the full article, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/health/23patient.html?_r=1&ref=health