Why Is an Electronic Medical Record Important?

President Obama committed a budget of $19 billion towards transitioning the health-care record keeping system from paper to electronic medical records (EMR). He said he believes it will have a direct impact on the future quality of patient care and reduce care costs.

Definition

• Physicians can have all the information on a patient at their fingertips.

  Healthday Reporter Steven Reinberg reports comprehensive functional electronic medical record systems include "patient's complete medical records, medication lists, problems, clinical notes from past visits. Prescriptions, lab and radiology tests can all be ordered electronically."

Function

• EMR's offer immediate and comprehensive patient information.

  EMR's have multiple purposes according to Reinberg. Examples are "doctors can review lab results, X-rays, MRI and other scans, and it offers warnings about inappropriate prescriptions or abnormal lab results. It reminds doctors when labs or tests are needed.

Advantages

• Doctors can review X-rays in real time with their patients.

  All patient data is immediately accessed allowing more time for patient care. Because information is entered on the computer writing legibility is not a problem. Fewer patient care errors occur as a result. Available patient information is current.

Expert Perspective

• Internet access allows doctors to offer patient care regardless of their location.

  Jennifer Brull, MD, strongly endorses electronic medical records. She says "I can always look at patient records by Internet whether I see patients in a nursing home, clinic or hospital, or as far away as Florida. The change has been incredibly beneficial for my productivity."

Disadvantages

• If an EMR system crashes patient care suffers.

  A disadvantage of EMR is initial start-up costs are high. If the system crashes health-care providers are left with virtually no patient information. Training staff to use the system can be challenging as are safeguards for security to ensure only appropriate personnel has access.