Question

2. What are the challenges with using a PHR?

Answer 1

As we know, an electronic health record (EHR) is a computer record that originates with and is controlled by doctors, a paper l health record (PHR) can be generated by physicians, patients, hospitals, pharmacies, and other sources but is controlled by the patient. Most of the health care organizations are now using EHR as the PHR has many disadvantages and using it is a challenging experience. PHRs have been shown to be difficult for patients to use and understand, and providers had concerns about correct information transferring to the portals and patients eliminating information from the record.

Another issue with PHR is that many incidents have been reported where people lost their medical records(PHR) and faced many troubles when they came for their follow up visits. Most importantly sometimes it is very hard for people to recall their medical, surgical and immunization history whereas in EHR this is relatively a simple process to retrieve the past data of a particular patient. Above all, statistical analysis of data is extremely difficult using PHR in contrast with EHR (electronic health record) and EMR(electronic medical records). Another challenge while using PHR is in health care is prescription or medical error due to bad or unclear handwriting. Studies have proven that a change from PHR to EMR has helped health care organizations to significantly reduce prescription errors.