The error of the electronic thermometer compared to the mercury is basically ±0.1, not much difference.
In the case of both thermometers, if the conditions are met, the two are equally accurate, but the electronic faster.
The electronic thermometer has the following advantages:
1, measurement time is fast, mercury measurement is theoretically about 10 minutes, while the electronic thermometer only takes 1 second or a few minutes; hospitals are crowded or the patient is not feeling well, the use of mercury temperature inefficiency.
2, the measurement can not touch the body, such as infrared thermometer is a non-contact temperature measurement, you can let the patient sleep without disturbing him to complete the measurement.
3, the device is more secure, the mercury thermometer has the risk of being broken by children, although after processing, the mercury will not cause serious harm to the body, but after all, there will be some harm.
References
Electronic thermometer. Knowing [cited 2018-1-19]