Preparing to Work with an EMR Expert

Learn what details to provide when hiring a data forensic expert during medical malpractice litigation to increase efficiency and cost effectiveness.

Prepare a summary of the following:

  • Develop timeline of notable events
  • Organize case documents and provide to your experts
  • Copy of the Complaint
  • Requests to produce
  • Interrogatories filed
  • Replies to Interrogatories
  • EMR Produced
  • Audit Logs Produced

Ask Your EMR Data Expert to Prepare the EMR for efficient review by attorneys & medical experts

  1. OCR the produced EMR (Allows for keyword searching)
  2. Convert the EMR to a spreadsheet format where practical
  3. Identify key events and providers
  4. Consider filtering for key dates, workers, or concepts
  5. Produce subset pdf documents / spreadsheets that are more easily reviewable
  6. Consider having pivot tables created showing overviews

In-Person Direct access provides additional information

  • Routing History
  • What the notes looked like at various points in time
  • Access to deleted records
  • Communications between healthcare workers
  • Example Screenshots from Popular HIS Systems follow

Enigma Forensics EMR Data Forensics Experts provide detailed analysis and interpretation of an EMR Audit Trail to assist Medical Malpractice Attorneys during litigation. We help win cases! Hire an Expert (HAE)! Call 312-668-0333

To Learn More about the EMR process

Filters Used to Withhold the Complete Electronic Medical Records

The universal implementation of electronic medical records (EMRs) has become the single most important piece of evidence used in medical malpractice litigation. In response to an EMR Discovery request, healthcare providers use various filters to create useless or hard to read data. Hire an expert to help you weed through the audit trail and to present Discovery requests relevant to the case.

Healthcare providers use filters to withhold electronic medical data when complying with a court order and producing EMR audit trails. During the discovery period, EMR audit trails are commonly used as the single most important piece of evidence in medical malpractice litigation. Knowing evidence is in the details, has led to a chess game of filters proving “Not all electronic medical records (EMRs) productions are created equal!” Figuring out how electronic medical records (EMRs) are filtered is a game changer!

Follow the filters!

When counsel requests a patient’s electronic medical records (EMRs) to review for evidence, the production is often delivered in non-electronic limited formats, such as; scan documents, PDF, or image files. Filters provide limited format productions of (EMRs) therefore it becomes extremely difficult to read and find evidence. Are hospitals and healthcare facilities doing this on purpose? Are they filtering their production to include irrelevant information with very little details about the event in question? They are not making it easy that’s for sure. In truth, they are complying with the court order and producing files that include the electronic health records of the plaintiff. They’re just not providing data information in its completeness. Using filters to produce audit trails is fairly common, but for the injured party and representing counsel these tactics are extremely excruciating. Requesting electronic medical records (EMR’s) is now a challenging game of filtering chess!

Forensic Experts know how to request data essential to your case.

It is quite common that hospitals and healthcare facilities use a variety of filters that will result in an incomplete production. When forensic experts study the production headers they uncover filters that were used to produce an incomplete EMR audit trail. Experts know how to ask for relevant data and dig deeper to find evidence.

Filters, Filters, and More Filters!

  1. Date filters that are applied could exclude alteration of records after the event took place. We suggest the best practice is to use the earliest known date prior to the medical event as a starting point and place the end date the same as the current date of the request. Pushing the end date to reflect the current date will show who looked at the record post-event.
  2. Department filters will only return records that are from one particular department, such as radiology or another department.
  3. Employee filters include specific employees of the healthcare facility. If an EMR record only shows entries related to a physician’s user IDs this can be problematic. It’s important to know all of the names and user IDs of all healthcare providers that visited the patient.
  4. Workstation filters are specific to desktops and/or workstations and could be the cause of incomplete production.
  5. Location filters are used by healthcare providers to limit the full scope of production. It is not uncommon for physicians to access important medical records remotely. This could cause manipulation of data by remote access and filter out data after the event in question.

Enigma Forensics has years of experience developing requests for electronic medical records (EMRs). Our experts know how to ask the right question to retrieve the necessary data to be used as evidence. Save yourself time and expense and hire an expert! Our experts are CISSP certified (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) that provide testimony as a professional witness in a court of law.

Please call Enigma Forensics at 312-669-0333 for a complimentary consultation.

EMR or EHR what is the difference?

EMR or EHR are synonymous. Both are medical records. The electronic medical records or EMR reveal an audit trail of what transpired during a medical or health visit. Each record is unique and tells a story about the patient. We are experts that can assist you to win your case!

Electronic data records are taking the place of the old school hard copy files and completely revolutionizing the way data is gathered and stored. Electronic Health Records (EHR) or Electronic Medical Records (EMR) are synonymous with each other. (EHR) is data that includes the patient’s vital information such as an address, medical history, allergies, immunizations, lab tests results, radiology images, and vital signs, also, personal statistics like age, weight, sexual orientation, and insurance information. (EMR) is an individual’s private health data that is stored in a protected database only accessible to medical personnel in compliance with The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations. EHR’s or EMR’s make patient charting easier and results in fewer errors and keeps this delicate personal information private and secure.

Medical data can be manipulated!

Medical data can be altered and inserted into EMR systems and made to look like it was there all the time or not there at all. Medical malpractice lawyers rely on EMR audit trails to tell the story of either side of a case; the plaintiff or the defendant. Medical records are marked by metadata or raw data. This data is developed separately from the EMR system making manipulation detection visible by reviewing the raw data and the database logs. Metadata can also be described as underlying data, like a digital footprint that creates an audit trail. In order to analyze raw data, you will need to hire Enigma Forensics; we are experts in the field of electronic medical records (EMR) or (EHR).

During a forensic review of EHR’s or EMR’s, we can authenticate or reveal backdating, back charting, data editing, or falsification of records. We have been on both sides of medical malpractice cases and almost always save our client a considerable sum of money. We work closely with the attorneys involved to help with eDiscovery verbiage and assist with what to look for.

Electronic Medical Records
Electronic Health Records and eDiscovery