germagr.blogg.se - The pros and cons of electronic medical records

This reveals various soft targets for potential hackers to exploit.

Health data was extremely vulnerable, in spite of various firewalls, mainly due to its inherently fluid nature- there are a large number of changes that take place in a patient’s EHR. On average, if a physician spent 31 minutes with a patient, he spent only 12 minutes interacting with the patient, and 19 mins entering data.Ī fact that became apparent with the use of EHRs, was that with the increasing amount of data generated, it was becoming more difficult to keep it safe. With a lack of adequate standardization of location or content of data required, it was difficult to get doctors to comply with using the electronic systems.ĭue to the increasing amount of data entry required, 74% of physicians reported that using an electronic health record system has increased their total number of working hours per day, taking valuable time away from their patients and contributing to physician burnout. With so many vendors available, it was becoming extremely difficult for physicians who rotated between facilities or visited at various clinics and centers to get used to the changing systems. In fact, nearly half of the primary care physicians said that the primary value of their system was just digital storage.Īnother considerable hurdleis the issue of interoperability of different systems. However, only 52% of the respondents were satisfied with the way their electronic systems helped them achieve their care goals. Most find that data entry is tedious, cumbersome and often repetitive, making it difficult for them to complete their notes on time.Ĩ8 % of physicians would prefer to leverage their EHRs as a clinical decision-making tool, by identifying high risk patients on their panels or coordinating care for patients with complex conditions. While 91% of physicians recognize the importance of electronic health records in patient care and would like their systems to provide an intuitive user experience, and facilitate a better doctor-patient interaction, only 44% are actually satisfied with their software’s capabilities to do those things.

It wasn’t long before EHR-linked population-based biobanks were established that gave opportunities for genomic research that helps fuels artificial intelligence based systems that help in diagnosis and clinical decision support, driving the concept of personalised medicine.Īll these factors made EHRs the proverbial knight in shining armor! Well, the age-old saying was certainly right: When it sounds too good to be true, it usually is!.

It provided quick and complete documentation, fulfilling standards for accreditation of health care facilities and making audits a lot easier.

An electronic home page that details all the stages of care that the patient has gone through, makes for an efficient collaborative tool. Very often, there is a lack of communication between doctors, nurses, residents, hospitalists and specialists, which leads to medication errors, delay in diagnosis, repetition of investigations or duplication of drugs.

The accessibility of patient records enabled physicians to work together on patient care.

EHRs for inpatients admitted in hospitals or healthcare centers, could be updated with detailed patient notes and hand off notes, which made it easy for different treating doctors to track the patient’s prognosis.

There was a reduced dependency on paper-based record keeping, which helped to maintain patient confidentiality and reduced chances of the paperwork being misplaced.

Patients can get access to this data and can also send it to specialists they have been referred to for continuity of care.

All these records can be preserved on secure servers.

Most EHRs had the ability to deliver e- prescriptions which made it easy to refill medication doses.

Follow up notes for successive visits could also be entered, making it easy to chronologically access information if required.

Details about patient history, medication history and examination findings could be entered into online patient portals, which could then be integrated with lab or radiology reports.