Electronic Medical Record - Case Study Example

The paper entitled "Electronic Medical Record" Is a great example of a Health Sciences and Medicine Case Study. The electronic medical record (EMR) is promising expertise that enables physician practices to follow more influential excellence perfection programs than is probable with paper-based records. Nevertheless, reaching quality perfection during EMR use is neither low-cost nor straightforward. Footed on an extensive study of physician follow that had employed an EMR, I discovered that quality development depends deeply on physicians' application of the EMR—and not just paper, for the majority of their everyday tasks. In the course of the study, I found out that the main barriers to physicians' use of EMRs. Also then recommend strategy interventions to conquer these barriers, including providing labor sustaining systems, working on electronic clinical information switch over, and providing financial rewards for worth enhancement.

EMR

The promise of the electronic medical record (EMR) is enormous. For example, the medical record system at Wishard Memorial Hospital and the University of Indiana Medical Center has electronic records for 1.4 million patients, including 6 million prescription records, hundreds of thousands of narrative documents, 200,000 EKG tracings, millions of physician orders entered annually, and 100 million coded patient observations and laboratory results. This EMR system includes all diagnoses, orders, encounters, and dictated notes, as well as various clinical information from selected sites. Even this extensive effort does not eliminate some paper records--physicians continue to make handwritten notes about the hospital and clinic visits, most of which are not included in the EMR (Clement 1997).

Despite such significant applications, a great deal of work remains to be done. The ultimate development of a computer-based patient record system that includes decision support functions as well as record-keeping functions is as yet unrealized (Cacy et al. 1997).

FROM PAPER TO ELECTRONIC RECORDS

Arguably, paper records impede optimal information management and adversely affect productivity and quality (Ornstein 1997). Paper records are often unavailable, missing important information, or illegible. Paper records can only be in one place at a time. Delivery of services at multiple sites means multiple paper records, most of which are unavailable where care is being delivered. Staff waste time looking for information previously recorded. Paper records are separate from financial or appointment systems and require multiple entries of demographic and transaction data. Paper records are expensive to buy, maintain, and store. In addition, considerable staff resources are required to manage paper records. Quality is diminished if physicians fail to make the multiple entries needed to maintain accurate problem lists, medical lists, and preventive services information. Paper records cannot provide reminders about preventive services or disease-state monitoring. They cannot provide decision support or support for practice guidelines, test ordering, drug prescribing, drug interactions or contraindications, encounter documentation, and other actions (Miller,2004). Finally, paper records inhibit quality assurance and quality improvement because collecting data is costly and difficult.

• ADVANTAGES OF EMRS

Medical records in an electronic format offer advantages that are virtually the opposite of the disadvantages noted above. EMRs facilitate moving information contained in, or to be put into, the medical record. Internally, the need to move the paper around the health services organization (HSO) is eliminated. Externally, delivering services at multiple sites is easier because all providers have access to the same medical information, something not possible with a paper record. The second advantage of EMRs is reduced off-line storage and retrieval costs because the significant space used and the cost of storing paper records is eliminated (Ornstein 1997). Third, EMRs improve the quality and coherence of the care process. For example, the logistics problems of paper records--loss, unavailability when needed, the difficulty finding information in them, illegibility--are largely solved (McDonald 1997).