Electronic medical record systems refer to digital versions of the paper charts of health-related data on a patient that can be generated, collected, and referred by authorized clinicians and employees within one healthcare facility. On the other hand, an electronic health record is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart that contains data from all caregivers involved in patient care (Padmanabhan et al., 2019).
At our health care facility, we utilize an EMR system to track information over time, classify patients for precautionary visits and screenings, monitoring them to improve healthcare quality. We use EHR systems to share data with other healthcare givers such as specialists and laboratories. These electronic systems help us offer safe care to patients by minimizing medical mistakes as patients can be diagnosed more efficiently.
Using these digital health records offers an organization better control over information security. EMR and EHR systems only grant access to authorized clinicians and healthcare administrators. This is done with encryption techniques to keep crucial patient data secure from any unauthorized access. The safety features of encryption plus robust login password systems make it hard for a third party to make unapproved access and changes to the patient’s chart. Modern EMR and EHR systems come with features that help staffers make timely reminders, such as telling patients about upcoming screening tests that they need to undergo (Wager et al., 2017). This not only makes the clinician’s workload lighter but also boosts patient safety.
The adoption of electronic systems has several advantages to an organization, including decreased healthcare costs, better care, and minimized medical errors. However, serious inadvertent consequences from the application of electronic systems have developed. Poor usage of the electronic systems can cause EMR and EHR related faults that jeopardize the reliability of the stored data. This leads to medical errors that endanger patient safety and decrease the quality of care (Bani Issa et al., 2020). For instance, a child died from a drug overdose due to wrongly set automated alerts by a clinician. The copy and paste functionality can lead to inappropriate documentation capture, resulting in medical errors and fraud allegations.
References
Bani Issa, W., Al Akour, I., Ibrahim, A., Almarzouqi, A., Abbas, S., Hisham, F., & Griffiths, J. (2020). Privacy, confidentiality, security and patient safety concerns about electronic health records. International Nursing Review, 67(2), 218-230.
Padmanabhan, S., Carty, L., Cameron, E., Ghosh, R. E., Williams, R., & Strongman, H. (2019). Approach to record linkage of primary care data from clinical practice research datalink to other health-related patient data: overview and implications. European Journal of Epidemiology, 34(1), 91-99.
Wager, K. A., Lee, F. W., & Glaser, J. P. (2017). Health care information systems: A practical approach for health care management. John Wiley & Sons.