Question

Write a one page paper on the roles of Electronic Health Records. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of an EHR system.

Answer 1

Ans) Electronic Health Record:

- "a longitudinal electronic record of patient health information generated by encounters in any care delivery setting, including patient demographics,progress notes, problems, medications,vital signs, past medical history, immunizations, lab data, radiology reports. Possibly genomic information".

- Advantages of EHR system:

Basic Clinical Outcome:

1) improved outcomes for patients (doing the right thing at the right time in the right way by the right person and having the best possible results)
2)reduced medical errors

Better Societal Outcome:

1) improved ability to conduct research
2) improved population health
3) reduced costs
4) better work satisfaction for health practitioner

Better Organizational Outcome:

1) Financial Benefits(increased revenue-reminders for health visits) , averted costs (less tests, no need to maintain paper records, billing errors eliminated)
2) improved legal and regulatory compliance

Disadvantages of EHR system:

- High upfront acquisition costs:Significant, however this is reducing as time goes on..as hardware becomes cheaper and software become more integrated

- On-going maintenance costs:Costly, nd many of the cost benefits of EHR are not realized by providers but third parties like Health Insurance companies.

- Disruptions to work flow due to learning a new system:

some research suggests:-
20%loss in first month
10% loss second month
5% loss third month
134 hrs to learn a new system

- Privacy and Security Concerns:Legislation required, audit functions to check who accessed records, no tolerance penalties, termination, for inappropriate access.

- Software and Systems reliability issues:

Over reliance on electronic systems
backup required/natural disasters
monopoly situations.