# authorship of chart entry



## myeo (Mar 25, 2010)

Hi everyone, 
My question is:   
In regards to the EMR and an office visit..... the MA rooms the patient, enters the chief complaint and documents vitals, but does not sign off on this entry.  The MD does, however,  authenticate the note.  In a perfect world, I know that we want the author of the chart entry to sign, but is it non compliant if there is no signature by the MA/nurse for their portion of the documentation?   I have heard both yes and no from other auditors and would love to hear others advice on this. 
Thank you!


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## RebeccaWoodward* (Mar 25, 2010)

*Question...*

We have two EMR's (temporarily).  The EMR that will become our permanent EMR does not,* visibly*, record the "author" of each entry; however, this particular EMR has an internal tracking system that allows one, such as myself, to view who recorded the information.  Is it possible that this is your scenario?


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## myeo (Mar 25, 2010)

Possibly.  I have a meeting with our EMR team tomorrow and I will definitely ask that question.  Thank you.  

In reviewing records from different EHR systems, I notice that some "authors" of entries do show on the records.  Do you feel that as long as there is a tracking system to validate the author of the entry, that would be sufficient ?


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## RebeccaWoodward* (Mar 25, 2010)

Personally, yes.  If your system is able to track exactly who enters the data, you should be fine.  Our EMR is very detailed with the tracking information and leaves very little to question.  I'm not exactly fond of this particular area of the program since it does require an extra step of review but at least I can read the information now.


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## myeo (Mar 25, 2010)

Thanks Rebecca! Your the best.


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## RebeccaWoodward* (Mar 25, 2010)

My pleasure and thank you!  Good luck...


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