Electronic Health Record System

Electronic Health Record System

Electronic health records system is a digital form of storing patients’ records and medical demographic data. In the past, hospitals used the manual paperwork formats which were tedious to work with and prone to loss, destruction and replication. However, when the electronic method was introduced, most of the negative things affecting storage of health records manually were put to an end. Studies show that there is increase in using EHR from the year 2008 at 10% to 84% in 2015 (Krisberg, 2017). The paper will look at the positive outcomes from the use of electronic health records and issues related to it.

There are several benefits of storing medical records electronically. Some of them include it improves the quality of care given to patients through reducing errors in medication and storage, reducing unnecessary investigations and improving exchange of information between health practitioners. It also enhances safety of their records which is free from physical destruction, falling into unauthorized and more confidentiality.

Moreover, EHR improves the lives of the practitioners by enhancing workflow.  They aid in easy retrieval of stored information thus reducing time. It further helps in easy access to patients’ data because files are arranged well in electronic formats. It also helps in scheduling appointments of patients and managing their prescriptions. Electronic health records are also stored in many formats which make it easier to keep all patients files in same folders.

It has significantly reduced the rate of mortality. In the past, medical doctor had difficulties in dealing with patients in the intensive care unit and those who are rushed to the emergency rooms because of lack of knowledge of their underlying clinical conditions.  The EHR helps doctors to know problems besides which they are treating the patient like allergies or chronic illnesses and issue the best medication to help them. Furthermore, they can easily monitor the parents response to the drug by analyzing their progress chart and act accordingly.

There is improved relationship between patients and doctors. EHR has enabled the creation of portals with the doctor’s through which patients can easily reach their reach some are even a le to book their appointments remotely. Doctors are also able to treat patients and write a prescription for them without the patients having to physically visit hospitals (Manca, 2015).

Although there are benefits accrued from using the new system, it has several issues affecting it. Some of them are information technology defects leading to loss of data. For example poor user interface, downtimes in internet connectivity thus failing to load the updated data at the correct time causing misidentification. Additional issues are erroneous data due to system disruptions and incorrect naming if files and loss of data from viruses and cyber attacks.

The practitioners make a lot of mistakes and cause information gaps in patients’ files.  For example the typos that leads to medication errors and dropping of keywords while doctors use the voice recognition software. Moreover, doctors rely on the old patient records which may be incorrect while nurses seem to misinterpret the drop down menus thus unknowledgeably inserting errors in other patients’ records while in a hurry (Allen, 2015).

In conclusion, electronic health records are beneficial to the health institution in many ways. From it, patients’ data are now kept safely, in large volumes, they are easy to restore, better arranged and easily transferrable from one doctor to another. Additionally, there is rate in reduction of mortality and enhanced work flow of physicians. Despite its merits, it has several issue related to its use. They include typos, loss of data, misinterpretations, downtimes in the system and network and errors in data.

References

Allen, A. (2015, May 4). Electronic record errors growing issue in lawsuits. Politico.

Krisberg, K., (2017), Harnessing the Power of Electronic Health Records to Improve Care, AAMCNews – American Association of Medical Colleges

Manca, D., (2015), Do Electronic Medical Records Improve Quality of Care, Canadian Family Physicians. 2015 Oct; 61(10): 846–847