Electronic health records (EHRs) bring important benefits, but they also raise recurring concerns about privacy, security, data accuracy, usability, and their impact on clinician workload and patient safety. Many of these issues are now central topics in health policy, medical forums, and research on digital health.

Privacy and security risks

EHRs centralize highly sensitive data, which makes them attractive targets for cyberattacks and misuse. Breaches can expose names, addresses, diagnoses, medications, and complete medical histories, with lasting consequences such as stigma, discrimination, or identity theft.

Key concerns include:

  • Unauthorized access by insiders (staff browsing records of coworkers, neighbors, or celebrities) and outsiders (hackers exploiting vulnerabilities).
  • Large-scale data breaches or theft of databases containing thousands or millions of patient records.
  • Loss, corruption, or destruction of data due to system failures, ransomware, or inadequate backups.

Ethically, there is worry that patients may conceal information if they fear their data could be shared without their knowledge, which can undermine honest communication and safe care.

Data quality and documentation issues

While EHRs were meant to improve accuracy, they can introduce new types of data errors. Poorly designed interfaces, time pressure, and copy‑and‑paste habits can lead to wrong, outdated, or misleading information in the record.

Common problems include:

  • Inaccurate transfer from paper to digital systems (wrong entries, missing data, or misfiled results).
  • Overuse of templates and copy‑paste, which can propagate old diagnoses, outdated medication lists, or exam findings that were never actually checked.
  • Selection errors from drop‑down menus or pick‑lists (choosing the wrong drug, dose, or diagnosis code).

When clinicians assume the EHR is complete and correct, these inaccuracies can contribute to misdiagnosis, inappropriate treatment, or failures to act on critical results.

Usability, workflow, and clinician burnout

Many clinicians report that EHRs are hard to use, cluttered, and poorly aligned with real clinical workflows. Research has linked difficult‑to‑use systems with poorer performance at catching dangerous medication errors and other safety issues.

Specific concerns:

  • Excessive clicking, complex navigation, and multiple windows/tabs just to see key information.
  • Important alerts or test results buried among less critical notifications, so serious issues can be overlooked.
  • Rigid data fields that do not match the clinical situation, forcing clinicians to work around the system or enter incomplete data.

These usability issues contribute to time spent documenting after hours, frustration, and professional burnout, which can indirectly harm patient care.

Patient safety and “unintended consequences”

EHRs were expected to reduce medical errors, but evidence shows they can both prevent and create new safety risks. Poor design, malfunction, or customization can cause critical information to be missed, misrouted, or misinterpreted.

Examples discussed in safety studies include:

  • Drug‑interaction checks that fail to fire, or alerts so frequent that clinicians dismiss them (“alert fatigue”).
  • Test results or orders that get “stuck” in electronic workflows and never reach the responsible clinician.
  • System downtime or slow performance delaying orders, documentation, and care in emergencies.

Because hospitals often modify EHR systems locally, some customization can unintentionally weaken built‑in safety features, and there are still no universal standards for usability and safety.

Ethical and trust concerns

Beyond technical flaws, EHRs raise broader ethical questions. Patients may not fully understand who can see their information, how it is shared across organizations, or how long it is stored.

Ethical concerns often highlighted include:

  • Threats to autonomy if data are shared or linked without explicit informed consent.
  • Fear that sensitive information (mental health, reproductive health, substance use, HIV status) could be exposed, affecting employment, insurance, or social relationships.
  • The risk that distrust of EHRs leads patients to withhold important details, paradoxically making their care less safe.

In short: the main concerns about electronic health records center on privacy and security vulnerabilities, data accuracy, usability and workflow burdens, new types of patient safety risks, and ethical questions about consent and trust in digital healthcare systems.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.