Electronic health records may support significant gains in care quality, as a new study indicates that nurses working with EHR systems report much fewer adverse outcomes and higher levels of quality.

The study, which was published in the Journal of Nursing Administration, is not the first to assess the impact of EHRs on care quality. However, it is among the first to look at the attitudes of the healthcare professionals who are often the most directly engaged with patients.

For the study, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing surveyed more than 16,000 nurses working at over 300 providers across the country. Participants working in practices that utilized EHR systems consistently rated the quality of care delivered and patient safety higher. The findings were consistent regardless of staffing levels.

The researchers concluded that utilizing EHRs may help make nurses more efficient, improve quality and safety and lead to healthier levels of care coordination, which in itself has been linked to gains in clinical quality.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has long listed improvements in clinical quality as being among the top benefits of EHR implementation.