Electronic Health Records: Pros and Cons

An Electronic Health Record which is an acronym for EHR is an automated, paperless, medical record in which a person’s medical data is recorded by a provider such as a nurse or a physician. It contains the person’s medical history and all the necessary details related to the person’s health. It is updated from time to time by the provider, including all the administrative and clinical data related to the person’s care which is done under a particular provider.

Electronic Health Records consist of various information and data such as the person’s progress notes, a list of all the problems they have, demographics, the medications they are on, vital signs, immunisations, laboratory data, medical history, radiology reports, analysis, solutions, sensitivities, imaging data, test information, antibody dates etc. It also includes data imported from personal health devices, segment information and security data.

EHR for Hospitals

EHR system benefits hospitals in so many ways. They provide clinical alerts and reminders so that you can take advantage of all important aspects. They help improve aggregation and analysis and make it easy to communicate the patient’s information. They reduce medical errors by considering all the aspects of a patient's condition.

EHR benefits for patients by supporting diagnosis, improving the accuracy and clarity of medical records and therapeutic decision-making.

EHR needs to be implemented in hospitals by carefully considering the process of planning and integrating the EHR software and components in the hospitals. The following steps need to be followed to execute EHR successfully in hospitals:

• Make a Committed Team – Creating a strong team is essential before implementing the EHR. The team should include the strongest physicians, medical assistants, administrative staff, and nurses. This team should be well trained to identify the risks and challenges and also educate their co-works to use EHR efficiently.
• Requirement Gathering – The hospital's needs are unique, so it is essential to gather all the information regarding the areas of the medical practice that need EHR.
• Data Transfer – After the EHR is ready to be implemented, all the data from the previous records must be transferred to the new system. Make sure to check that the correct and complete information is transferred without missing out on anything.
• Training the Employees – Training the employees regarding the usage of EHR is a crucial part. A lack of proper knowledge on how to use the EHR will interfere with daily operations.
• Testing the EHR – Once the employees are well trained, the EHR system needs to be adequately tested to ensure that all the data and related files are loading properly. The collected data is processed and stored correctly.

Pros of EHR

There are several benefits of an EHR for both the patients and the providers, which include a wide array of societal, organisational and clinical outcomes. Let us have a look at some of the EHR benefits:

• Improved Quality of Care – As the records are computerised, everything is in order and is easy to handle. The risk of misinterpretations is also reduced, which may lead to unwanted health consequences. The documentation work has also improved and is accurate, which makes the submission quicker and safer. The significant advantage of electronic health records is that they can trace and manage medications in a particular location, alerting you to drug-to-drug interaction.

EHR benefits include the storage of medical records; thus, collecting and analysing the data becomes easier. Due to this, controlling the inventory has become easy and creating the reports has become faster.

• Efficiency and Convenience – As the records are computerised, there is no need to sort out the paperwork to gather information about a particular patient. Pieces of information can be accessed easily and faster just with a few keystrokes, which is a boon for the patients and the providers.

It greatly increases the organisation's efficiency by allowing it to collaborate with other partners. It also employs coding applications to facilitate billing easily. They reduce the number of charts required to pull and file again.

One of the important pros of electronic health records is that it helps in lowering the transcription cost and reduces the risk of malpractice by offering improved documentation. It also increases formulary compliance which enables the making of prescriptions easier.

• Saves Space – EHR has cut down the cost of printers, paper, ink, file cabinets, and folders. There is no need to keep a physical record of medical records and avoid wasting space and resources as all the official medical records are stored on a computer hard drive and backed up in the cloud.
• No Labour cost – The patient's data can be reviewed faster, and there is no need to call or send an email to remind or check on the patient's documents or issue an appointment. There is no manual handling or managing of the documents, and that’s why there is no labour cost involved.

Cons of EHR

Though there are a lot of benefits of an EHR which makes the work easy and fast, there are certain limitations to it –

• Potential Privacy and Cybersecurity issues – As we all are aware of cyber-attacks, even EHR is not immune to them. The data can be hacked, and medical information can be leaked easily, leading to dire consequences.
• Inaccurate Data – Regular updating of EHR is required, and if not done correctly then it may lead to the storage of incorrect or incomplete information which can lead to errors in the treatment, diagnosis and health outcomes by the pharmacists, medical practitioners, physical therapists and everyone attending to the patient.
• Frightening Patients Needlessly – As the information and data can be accessed by the patients, it may lead to unwanted fear and misunderstandings. If the information of the patients is not understood well, it can create panic in the patient leading them to take inappropriate actions regarding their health.
• Malpractice Liability Concerns – Implementing an EHR in the organisation can open up a door for various liability concerns. These concerns can be regarding the data being lost or destroyed during the transfer from the paper to the computer. If that happens, it will lead to errors in the treatment.
• Time and Money – It is costly to implement the EHR in the organisation, from installing it to transferring the data from paper to the digital platform. It also involves a lot of time seeking the right vendors to complete the set-up. It also takes time to train the staff to use the system efficiently.

To Conclude

Electronic Health Records have many benefits for the patients as well as the physicians, pharmacists, medical practitioners, nurses, and all the people related to the care for the patient. It has made the life of these people easy and increased efficiency and convenience.

However, there are certain limitations which are still a concern. If proper measures are taken, and the EHR is adopted and used meaningfully, it can be a blessing for the patients, providers and society as a whole.