The Advantages and Issues Surrounding Electronic Medical Records

2007-03-08 10:33:40

( Pharmeceutical-Medical )



Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) are the computerized patient records. EMRs can facilitate access of patient records by health staff, particularly a medical records coder at any given location. Electronic Medical Records are also useful in making clinical notes and prescriptions.

EMRs allow quick access and easy retrieval of an electronic patient record. It is because information and data of a patient is entered electronically in a database. Moreover, previous paper-based records of a patient could either be scanned or photographed and incorporated on the computerized medical records of the patient. This allows the easy establishment of a health care history of a patient. Electronic medical records could also be used by employers to keep track of a worker who could have health problems in the future.

Another benefit of EMRs is that it could be used for an accurate and complete processing of insurance claims. Electronic medical records can also be utilized for automated drug and allergy checks of a patient. Easy transport of the computerized medical records between hospitals, clinics, labs and other health institutions which maybe of substantial help in monitoring the condition of a patient.

Even though there are lots of advantages which could be earned from electronic medical records, there are also issues surrounding it which should be taken into consideration to maximize its potentials. The first and foremost issue is about the security and privacy of the electronic patient record and of course the patient. Because electronic records are very vulnerable to unauthorized access, proper and adequate security measures should be put into practice. Another concern is about the medical records storage. It should be ensured that periodic migration of the patient records is performed to prevent unnecessary loss of information due to the degradation of the media storage used. Frequent backups should be scheduled especially for those patients whose records are always appended or altered. Ensuring the legibility of electronically captured data from physical records should also be ensured before taking in effect the elimination of the manual or paper-based patient records.

If these proper medical records management are employed on electronic medical records, the field of electronic healthcare and medical informatics could save huge amount of money. The money saved could then be used for medical researches leading to development of medicines for currently incurable diseases.


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