ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS

Electronic Medical Records

Electronic Medical Records

Electronic Medical Records are made up of all the reports, assessments, legal documentations, and financial references to a person's history. This system requires communication and information technology which takes part in an integrated system of health care that include the planning, and management of patient information. With the continued problems of paper records, electronic medical records have become an important issue for the health care organizations. Electronic medical records present an important and challenging issue for health care reform.

Paper records consume a vast amount of time, patience, and costs in a health care system. This type of record maximizes the storage capacity which allows for more problems such as cost for additional space. Storage capacity causes records to get misplaced. Misplacing record can create errors, misunderstanding, conflict, and dismissal of employment. Physician writing is another problem when using paper records.

Understanding Electronic Medical Records requirements will help the users in determining which system will best fit their needs. Using the electronic medical records system, patient safety and care are greatly improved. Developing a language system will allow for shared information with diverse cultures within the health care organizations. Before implementing electronic medical records in a health care setting, the organization needs to research, review, and weigh the advantages and disadvantages of this system.

The disadvantage of electronic medical records are start up costs. Capital for the system is an issue for an organization because their goal is to find ways in reducing health care cost. Another disadvantage is knowledge. With the physician being the primary party in utilizing the electronic medical records system, they will need to have some knowledge of technology. Privacy and security concerns are also potential disadvantages of electronic medical records. Determining who should have access to patient information must be implemented to assure patients privacy and security rights are not abused.

Some literature cites two major problems related to information errors which may be encountered when using a Patient Care Information System (PCIS): “(1) PCISs that have human-computer interfaces that are not suitable for this highly interruptive use context, and (2) PCISs that cause cognitive overload by overemphasizing structured and complete information entry and retrieval” (Ash, Berg and Coiera 2004). In more easily understood terms, this first point is arguing many of the interfaces currently available seem to have been constructed for a single user who concentrates only on computer ...