Perils of Auto-Population of Newborn EHR With Maternal Intimate Partner Violence History

Abstract

In 2020, the 21st Century Cures Act was enacted, mandating that patients have access to their electronic health record. This has the potential to benefit both patients and clinicians by increasing communication, transparency, and patient autonomy. However, with the onset of the act, a number of unintended consequences of the act have been identified. Presently, we discuss a case where documentation of intimate partner violence and the safety plan documented in a mother's electronic health record automatically populated her newborn's admission note. This confidential information inadvertently became accessible to the perpetrator: the infant's father.