EHR can provide:
- Improved patient safety
- Improved clinical management of chronic disease conditions
- Improved clinical quality and efficiency
- Reduction of duplicate tests
Benefits of Electronic Health RecordsElectronic health records offer many benefits over traditional paper records. These include quick retrieval, efficient health care delivery, and safety backups
Quick RetrievalStoring health records electronically allows for quick retrieval of patient information by physicians and clinical staff wherever and whenever necessary. This electronic system ensures that information about each patient is accessible and complete whenever a physician must make a treatment decision. Electronic health records also are easy for searching, tracking and analyzing information. Unlike paper records, they are not bulky, don’t take up costly space, and don’t require labor-intensive methods to maintain, retrieve and file.
Physicians can send reminders about scheduled tests, review all test results and establish better profiles of each patient’s health.
Efficient Health Care DeliveryIf a community has a Health Information Exchange (HIE), providers will be able to access a patient’s complete health records to determine medications that have been prescribed and X-rays or other tests that may have been ordered. These systems will reduce medication errors and improve the quality of care.
Safety BackupsEHR offers a safety feature that is not available with paper records. Electronic copies, known as backups, can be easily made and stored off site.
In the case of flood, fire or other natural disasters, a physician’s office can be destroyed. Backed-up electronic records permit a smoother recovery than paper records do.
A physician who has an electronic system with regular backups will be able to re-establish the office with all patient and financial records intact. This is good for patient care and the financial wellbeing of the medical practice.
Disadvantages of Paper Medical RecordsAn electronic health records system is a means of preserving medical information in a rapid and efficient way, much more so than a paper records system. Paper records have several disadvantages:
Quick RetrievalStoring health records electronically allows for quick retrieval of patient information by physicians and clinical staff wherever and whenever necessary. This electronic system ensures that information about each patient is accessible and complete whenever a physician must make a treatment decision. Electronic health records also are easy for searching, tracking and analyzing information. Unlike paper records, they are not bulky, don’t take up costly space, and don’t require labor-intensive methods to maintain, retrieve and file.
Physicians can send reminders about scheduled tests, review all test results and establish better profiles of each patient’s health.
Efficient Health Care DeliveryIf a community has a Health Information Exchange (HIE), providers will be able to access a patient’s complete health records to determine medications that have been prescribed and X-rays or other tests that may have been ordered. These systems will reduce medication errors and improve the quality of care.
Safety BackupsEHR offers a safety feature that is not available with paper records. Electronic copies, known as backups, can be easily made and stored off site.
In the case of flood, fire or other natural disasters, a physician’s office can be destroyed. Backed-up electronic records permit a smoother recovery than paper records do.
A physician who has an electronic system with regular backups will be able to re-establish the office with all patient and financial records intact. This is good for patient care and the financial wellbeing of the medical practice.
Disadvantages of Paper Medical RecordsAn electronic health records system is a means of preserving medical information in a rapid and efficient way, much more so than a paper records system. Paper records have several disadvantages:
- They are bulky, cumbersome and require costly space for storage.
- Retrieving and re-filing paper records require much labor.
- Paper records can be misfiled easily.
- When one person or department checks out a record, it is unavailable for someone else, which can have serious consequences in emergency situations.
- Paper records cannot be searched easily.
- Tracking, analyzing and charting medical information is difficult with paper records.
- Paper records cannot be backed up or stored off-site easily.
- Handwriting on paper records sometimes can be illegible.
Electronic health records can overcome these disadvantages and provide a system in which information is much more easily stored, retrieved, updated and secured.
