Defining health information technology-related errors: New developments since to err is human

The goal of this manuscript is to advance the understanding of HIT-related errors and explain how adverse events, near misses, and patient harm can result from problems with HIT itself or from interactions between HIT, its users, and the work system. HIT errors almost always jeopardize patient outcomes and have high potential for harm [6]. This is because many of these errors are latent errors that occur at the “blunt end” of the healthcare system [7], with potential to affect large numbers of patients if not corrected. Furthermore, if important structural or process-related HIT problems are not addressed proactively, care of millions of patients may be affected due to impending widespread adoption and implementation of EHRs [8]. We thus focus this manuscript heavily on errors related to the use of EHR systems.