Pros & Cons of Free Web Based EMR

When you walk into your doctor's office, you are more than likely handed a clipboard and asked to fill out the required paperwork. The paperwork gets passed around from the nurse to the doctor to the office staff before going back into the file cabinet. An electronic medical record, or EMR, is designed to eliminate that paper trail. While helpful for patient care, an EMR system can be costly and cumbersome to implement. A free, Web-based EMR can help eliminate some of those challenges, but it also presents some of its own.

Costs

• On average, a five-physician primary care practice will spend $162,000 to implement an EMR system, according to an October 2011 by Baylor Health Care System and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. On top of that, the study found first year maintenance fees were $85,000. A free, Web-based EMR costs nothing. These solutions require no software or hardware, and therefore no maintenance. To cover the costs of the product, many of the free solutions include advertising that you cannot turn off or disable.

Access

• With a Web-based EMR, you can access your patient information from anywhere you can find a computer and Internet connectivity. You can bring up patient records from home or on the road, or through your smartphone or tablet. A Web-based EMR also gives you the advantage of nearly instant access to information. Instead of pulling and filing charts, you can simply enter a few keystrokes instead. Of course, this instant access only works when the Internet is up and running. You can lose valuable time when the Web hits a glitch and you are left with no data.

Features

• According to a "HealthLeaders Media" article from April 2010, free EMRs that are Web based have more features than you may think. In addition to offering quick, convenient access to patient information, some solutions allow you to electronically prescribe medications, add scanned documents and integrate lab results. You may also be able to use a Web-based product to manage more than just your immediate patient data. For example, you can find solutions that include billing and reporting modules.

Customization and Security

• Although there are many pros to a free, Web-based EMR, these products also have their cons. A KevinMD post from May 2011 explains that if you want the ability to customize your EMR system, you may want to explore other options. The free solutions tend to have little flexibility. Additionally, you have to be able to trust that your patient data is being securely stored. When you host your EMR solution internally you can pay closer attention to privacy and security settings.