Electronic Medical Records

RE: Electronic Medical Records 8/28/2015 11:52:36 AM I agree with you Ashley, it's all about the patients privacy. The confidentiality is very important, and any records or information relating to the patients is to be considered privileged.

purpose of this paper is to review the electronic medical record and analyze its impact on

Over the past few years, we have notice a significant change in the workflow of a healthcare organization. This change is caused by the technological advancements of Health Information Technology (HIT). One of the many technological advancements of HIT is the Electronic Health Record (EHR). Electronic health records are a patient’s paper chart in a digital format. It always contains real time information and can be easily accessible. With EHR put into act, it has the ability to electronically view and share a patient’s medical history, past and current medications, immunization dates, any diagnoses or allergies, as well as testing and lab reports. It is also used to document and store data, in addition with many more abilities. It is important to understand the purpose, application, challenges, and advantages of an electronic heath record. In order to get a greater understanding of its use, we will use a private family medicine practice as the foundation for implementing the EHR.

The purpose of this paper is to review and summarize the literature on the pros and cons of electronic health record systems. This paper describes the many benefits of electronic health record systems, which include but are not limited to, less paperwork, increased quality of care, financial incentives, and increased efficiency and productivity. Organizational outcomes and societal benefits are also addressed. Despite the tremendous amount of benefits, studies in the literature highlight potential disadvantages of electronic health record systems. These disadvantages include privacy and security concerns, identity theft, data loss, financial issues, and changes in workflow, involving a temporary loss of productivity. Preventative measures that can be taken are addressed as well. Overall, people believe that the benefits of electronic health records can be realized when they are used correctly, and proper measures are taken to reduce any potential drawbacks.

Many health care facilities are already starting to use an electronic health record in some of their departments. An electronic health record is a system that allows health care employees to input patient information into a computer system and saves that information into a database for the facility. The information that is being stored directly into the computer system is patients’ personal information (name, date of birth, address, emergency contact information, insurance information, and primary care physician and/or admitting physician), medical history, allergies, current medications, nurses and doctors’ notes, and other information that may pertain to the reason for the visit. Radiology and lab results are also saved into the electronic health record. Even though some health care facilities use a computer system to save some information, there may also be paper work that is also being used. This paper work is scanned into the facilities database so that it can also be saved and viewed if necessary.

Electronic Health Records (EHR) are changing the way health care is delivered to patients, not just how patient medical information is stored. In the recent past, patient-doctor visits consisted of handwritten multiple medical forms to be completed, and most times duplicated. There were several areas of concern with past patient record keeping, omission of important care information, medical interventions and prescribed medication were missed in certain cases, erroneously prescribed or duplicated and records were lost or misplaced. EHR facilities and improves the quality of care by refining access to patient record by multiple health care providers and the patient; better decision support; reporting occurs in real time and is legible which

For a nation to be technologically advanced, the United States (U.S.) is having a hard time overcoming the dark era of utilizing hand written scripts, progress notes, and paper records. In comparison to other countries, the U.S. is lagging behind in the health care system. Even with all the improvements that have been made recently, the U.S. ranked last in 2014 in areas such as access, efficiency and equity compared to Australia, Canada, France Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom (Davis, Stremikis, Squires, & Schoen, 2014). Now, as our nation is trying to improve the quality, access, and proficiency of our health care, concerns have been raised whether the new policies are adequate enough for privacy amongst sharing and obtaining health information. This paper was put together to give background information on how the electronic medical record came about and whether privacy is a major concern amongst the American population.

Electronic health records affect the way providers deliver care to or communicate with patients, and they all confront barriers impeding their widespread adoption and use (Wager, Lee, & Glaser, 2013, p. 164).

Electronic Medical Records (EMS) is a digital version of the paper charts in the clinical office, the EMR contains the medical and history of the patient also allows us to track data over time, monitor and improve overall quality of care within the practice such as blood pressure and vaccinations, therefore the patients record may be printed out and delivered by mail to a specialist or members of the care team. Electronic Health Record (EHR) are designed to collect and compile all information to reach out beyond the health organization and to easily share the medical information of the patient to follow him or her through various modalities of healthcare, some benefits of EHRs are to gather information by the primary care which they advise

An electronic health record is a digital copy of a patient’s medical chart, which replaces the paper charts formerly used by facilities. The EHR contains diagnoses, history, prescriptions, laboratory data,

“By 2015, use of a certified electronic health record (EHR) is mandated under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act” (Kelly & Tazbir, 2014, p. 129).Electronic health records comes from the electronic medical records data and where nurses document the patient’s care that has the ability to move from one provider to another. “The main purpose of documentation is facilitating information flow that supports safety, quality, and continuity of care” (Kelly & Tazbir, 2014, p. 131). Electronic health records also improves the quality of confidential health information as compared to the paper system. Informatics is defined as “the use of information technology as a communication and information-gathering tool

Electronic Medical Records or Computerized Medical Record System what is it and what are the advantages along with the disadvantages of using this system? That is what we will discuss in this paper.

Individuals doubt whether EMRs are a secure store for their information and records, and fear that data in the system may be accessible to those who are not authorized to obtain it, is a greater concern for EMR exchange. Empirical work on patient and individuals attitudes to implementation of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) for health delivery and secondary purposes has up to now pointed out commonly positive attitudes to extensive health information sharing and record linkage, with some difference in opinions between different socio-demographic groups and between individuals with different levels of personal experience to health services [14, 15, 16, 17, 18]. However, individuals may choose to hold back information and delay seeking treatment instead of disclose specific types of health information, mainly when they perceive they have little control over its use [29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34].

As expressed by Arnold & Boggs (2011) “the use of electronic medical records and storage of personal health information in computer databases has reinforced attention on issues of ethics, security, privacy and confidentiality” (p. 503). Other problem with the electronic medical records is that since there are many options in which

For centuries, paper-based records were the only way of communicating patient’s medical records throughout the health care system. Gradually, for the past two decades, the healthcare system has been transitioning toward computerized systems called electronic medical records better knowns as EMR. Dr. Clem McDonald from the Regenstrief Institute stated that his “goal was to solve three problems, to eliminate the logistical problems of the paper records by making clinical data immediately available to authorized users wherever they are – no more unavailable or undecipherable clinical records; to reduce the work of clinical book keeping required to manage patients – no more missed diagnoses when laboratory evidence shouts its existence, no more forgetting about required preventive care; and to make the informational ‘gold’ in the medical record accessible to clinical, epidemiological, outcomes and management research.”(website McDonald, Clement). EMR is said to benefit the healthcare system by improving quality, safety, and efficiency of care. “With this in mind, the benefits will be presented in terms of access; quality, safety, and efficiency of care delivery” (Health informatics book). The writer herself has been able to experience the benefits and disadvantages of using EMR. Working as a school nurse and a skilled home health nurse it is required to document electronically. Electronic medical records has benefits and