Why Is Electronic Health Record Important

EHRs help your doctors coordinate your care and protect your safety - Since all my information as a patient is contained in the EHR system all of my doctors know what medications I am taking, whether it will interact with other medication, if I am allergic to any medication or if a particular drug did not work out for me in the past. This saves me from any risk of the wrong medication being prescribed and the cost of talking medication that does not work for me.

Electronic health records (EHR) are health records that are generated by health care professionals when a patient is seen at a medical facility such as a hospital, mental health clinic, or pharmacy. The EHR contains the same information as paper based medical records like demographics, medical complaints and prescriptions. There are so many more benefits to the EHR than paper based medical records. Accuracy of diagnosis, quality and convenience of patient care, and patient participation are a few examples of the

The pros of EHR are: It provides accurate and up to date information about the patients at the point of care. It also enables quick access to patient records. It has secure sharing information

Some pros of the electronics health record are the following. The use of EMRs supposedly reduces errors in medical records. There is no doubt that handwritten records are subject to lots of human errors due to misspelling, illegibility, and differing terminologies. With the use of EMRs standardization of patient health records may eventually become achievable. Paper records can be easily lost. We have heard how fires, floods and other natural catastrophes destroy physical records of many years, data which are lost forever. Digital records can be stored virtually forever and can be kept long after the physical records are gone. EMRs also help keep records of health information that patients tend to forget with time, i.e. inoculations, previous illnesses and medications. Improve quality and convenience of patient care,

The requirement is that eligible professionals and hospitals should be able to demonstrate “meaningful use” of certified EHRs in order to qualify for incentive payments under the Medicare EHR Incentive Program (“How to attain,” 2013). Practices who do not adopt EHR may be penalized in the form reduced Medicare reimbursements (Bendix, 2016).

Electronic health records, or EHRs are fully electronic forms of patients charts and health history. This has helped to keep all patient information streamlined into a specific area, as well as cut down on paper waste (Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information, n.d.) Health care providers are

However, whereas this seems to prove the importance of EHRs there is a need to understand the steps to quality healthcare and how EHRs enable hospitals provide these aspects. This paper will try to bring forth, the true picture of Electronic Health Records effectiveness. It is important to understand what an EHR is. According to this paper, this will take the following definition

Electronic Health Record played a major impact in biomedical decision making. It is designed to be used as part of the consultation process. Data cannot be utilized in health care unless they are recorded can facilitate the chart review process. Biomedical used computer data retrieval and analysis techniques to do most of the work. They used HER to monitor the content and generate warnings or advice for the biomedical provider based on a single observation. EHR helps to improve patient safety, legibility of clinical’ preventive services are overdue and reminds clinicians about patient allergies, the correct dosage of drugs. EHR provide problem summary lists of diagnoses, allergies, and surgeries at one glance. Electronic record help in providing

According to HealthIt.gov (2014) Meaningful Use (MU) is defined as a “certified electronic health record that helps improve patient quality; safety; efficiency and reduces health gaps; engage patients and

Electronic health records are basically the new way of storing and organizing patient’s medical information. EHR patient files are divided into sections where healthcare providers and the staff can find the information they need so they can provide the care for the patients. It’s basically a digital format or documentation often individuals medical history that is maintained by healthcare providers or health institutions just similar to the paperwork but it’s more efficient it’s easier to use it’s more organized also includes information on patients, demographics, medications, allergies, vital signs, patients notes, patients history whether its medical or just history in general diagnosis. The purpose of its easier to find a record and that

Defining the role and purpose of an electronic health record depends on who is doing the defining. The offices of CMS would argue that the purpose of an EHR is to report on the quality of patient care measures and to submit data for billing. A provider may say that the an EHR is to store clinical records and provide clinical decision support. The HCO may say the EHR is used for accounting services and project management. None of these definitions is wrong and the EHR is used for all of these purposes.

The importance to health records is that it is easier to treat a patient if you already have the history of the patient illnesses and what medications have helped in the past as well as it will tell them anything they are allergic. They are also important for you don’t have to retake the same test over again if you already have it on file at the hospital you went too. Now with the electronic health care they are heping to make the paients experience better for them with less wait time and questions. Also with the electronic health records it helps the

First, it can improve standards of care. Data collected by the Electronic Health Records provides the best treatment methods; leading to a healthier population (Ferguson, 2001). It is tangent to the over-all goal of knowing the best way to handle treatment for each individual patient. Second, it will bring increased patient participation and collaboration. Our health spending is in a large part due to our chronic health issues. Chronic diseases brought on by poor lifestyle choices are difficult to handle, but IT provides a better way for organizations to develop new disease management solutions to address the issue. Data retrieved from EHR’s could also be beneficial in figuring out ways to curtail costs associated with chronic illness. The third way is the healthcare industry is continuously changing, and that results in an overpowering amount of information to distill and absorb. Also, the coming wave of electronic clinical data provides us an opportunity to replace old-fashioned, volume-based, fee for service business model with one fixated on the quality of the product. And last, but certainly not least, health IT should be used as a tool to include the patient in his or her own care. We need to become better educated as patients. Also, standing up and questioning services, quality, and price to make this break

Electronic health records (EHR’s) have many advantages, but there are plenty of disadvantages. EHR’s were created to manage the many aspects of healthcare information. Medical professionals use them daily and most would feel lost without it. Healthcare organizations were encouraged to adopt EHR’s in 2009 due to the fact that a bill passed known as The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act). “The HITECH Act outlines criteria to achieve “meaningful use” of certified electronic records. These criteria must be met in order for providers to receive financial incentives to promote adoption of EHRs as an integral part of their daily practice”, (Conrad, Hanson, Hasenau & Stocker-Schneider, 2012).

Another big plus of the EHRs is that studies have shown that it has helped providers improve accuracy of diagnoses and health outcomes (Couch, 2008). For example, nurses could have reliable access to patients complete health information and have pictures which would help with whatever problem they might encounter. EHR doesn’t just keep patients medications and allergies, it also check for problems whenever a new medication is prescribed and it also alerts the nurse of potential problems (Couch, 2008). EHRs can also tell the nurse if potential safety problems occur, which helps them avoid more serious consequences for patients, which can lead to better outcomes. The EHRs can also help nurses quickly identify and correct operational problems, which compared to the paper-based setting, those kinds of problems would be more difficult to correct. It can also help