Benefits of Electronic Health Records

Electronic Health Records (EHR) is a promising direction in the development of medical care. The abundance of paper records with their significant shortcomings makes not only patients suffer but also all employees of healthcare establishments. Recently, all institutions in the medical sphere have been striving for maximum computerization. To that end, an easy-to-use EHR was developed, the use of which greatly simplifies the work of medical personnel and the lives of patients. Below, the crucial advantages of Electronic Health Records will be explored.

The most important thing is that one can include absolutely the same information in an electronic medical record as in its paper counterpart. Here, it should be emphasized that EHR has a considerable number of advantages. First, EHR will never be lost; the patient will not be able to take it home. Thus, the information is always located directly in a healthcare establishment. The next advantage of EHR is that there is no need to search for it and then transfer it to a certain specialist by the registry (Heath & Porter, 2019). All data is always available to the doctor via a device.

Another undoubted advantage of the EHR is that there is no need to constantly glue additional sheets, advisory opinions, and medical examination results. All such data is entered into certain columns of the program, which issues the necessary information at the first request of the physician. Several specialists in a caregiving institution can get acquainted with the contents of the electronic card of an inpatient at the same time (Coats & Acharya, 2014). In this case, not only the simultaneous reading of EHR is possible but also the filling of it. This feature allows one to expediently optimize the activities of the personnel of a medical institution.

Then, the creation of an electronic medical record of a patient implies significant benefits for them. First, each patient can be sure that not a single conclusion or examination result will be lost from his or her medical record. In addition, when visiting a medical facility, patients do not have to stand in line while the receptionist finds their EHR and gives it to the doctor. The patient only needs to make an appointment with a specialist. When visiting the establishment, it remains to present a health insurance card, and then one can immediately go to the physician whose consultation he or she needs.

The next benefit the patient gets is privacy. Information about the doctor’s appointment, the diagnosis, and the results of the medical examination will become unavailable to representatives of the nursing staff. The problem is that with an outdated system of accounting and data storage, medical records are usually kept in the registry (Entzeridou et al., 2018). Employees working there have full access to paper records and can look at absolutely any, not only of their interest but also at someone’s request. The EHR system for storing patients’ medical data eliminates this possibility.

Finally, even though the initial stages of the introduction of the electronic card system involve high implementation costs, such an approach saves much more money in the shortest terms. The fact is that every year each medical institution spends huge amounts of money on the purchase of various paper products. Of course, the implementation of EHR requires large energy costs, but the overall savings are substantial.

To conclude, the benefits of Electronic Health Records were discussed. EHR became necessary due to the general computerization of modern society. Specialists have long been tired of working with a large volume of paper documents that have a vast number of shortcomings. EHR was developed for the greater convenience of patients and the facilitation of the professional activities of the healthcare system. In addition, it allows to significantly simplify the activities of the organizational, methodological, and statistical departments of any medical institution.

References

Coats, B., & Acharya, S. (2014). Leveraging the cloud for Electronic Health Record access. Perspectives in Health Information Management, 11(Winter), Web.

Entzeridou, E., Markopoulou, E., & Mollaki, V. (2018). Public and physician’s expectations and ethical concerns about electronic health record: Benefits outweigh risks except for information security. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 110, 98–107.

Heath, M., & Porter, T. H. (2019). Change management overlooked: physician perspectives on EHR implementation. American Journal of Business, 34(1), 19–36.