The effect of longitudinal EMR access on laboratory ordering.

A longitudinal electronic medical record (EMR) allows physicians to access laboratory results in the context of the patient's medical history. Daily lab order volumes were tracked for physicians with access to an EMR and physicians with no EMR access to assess whether physicians with EMR access changed their lab order habits significantly more than a matched set of controls. This study shows that physicians will change their ordering habits in order to access the lab results in the context of an EMR.