ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS



Electronic Medical Records

Electronic Medical Records

Introduction

The advances in electronic records include systems that support users by storing data in databases that are coded and structured to allow easy retrieval by stakeholders for patient care delivery, management, decision support, and analysis. Some (including the Institute of Medicine) refer to these advanced records as computer-based patient records. The ideal electronic medical record is still being defined but should include minimum elements such as a complete recording of historical items related to a particular patient's care, stored in a database with defined values as opposed to narrative value that is not as searchable (Gaylin, 2007). It should also be easily accessible and improve efficiency of record taking. The ideal medical record will eventually be compatible with data management instead of just data collection and should be planned with management as the goal.

The U.S. health care industry has been late in adopting IT compared to other economic sectors in the United States and compared to health care providers in other industrialized countries. For example, U.S. financial and banking services typically spend 5% to 6% of revenues on IT, whereas health care organizations spend 3% to 4% (Chang, 2006). Denmark provides universal health care to its citizens with most of their health information kept in a single system that can be accessed and updated by an individual's primary care doctor and other medical professionals. Despite a late start, U.S. spending on health care IT now exceeds $30 billion annually, and IT has achieved clear priority status in health care policy throughout all levels of government and in health care organizations (Baron, 2008).

Discussion

Data recording without management capacity will handicap the ability of health care to improve itself. All quality control efforts require application of scientific method to data rather than just to collection of data. ...