Electronic Health Records - Essay Example

"Electronic Health Records" is a perfect example of a paper on the health system. Electronic health record (EHR) has received applaud due to its ability to be created and managed by authorized providers in a digital format. Thus, it can be joint with other service providers across the health care platform. These include emergency responses, pharmacies, laboratories, and other medical services providers. (Tutty et al. 2019). Despite this positivity, there are also some critical issues and challenges.
Challenges of electronic health records

Privacy and confidentiality
No person ignores issues concerning confidentiality and privacy when it comes to EHR. In most countries, children under the age of 18 are considered minor by the state. Teenage parents mostly control the portals, by law, a parent or guardian controls a minor's ERH portal. Teenager who is passing through puberty most of the times need privacy from their parent. Teenagers do not like the full disclosure of their health information to their parents. Confidentiality is an essential part of the health management system. Medical societies are advocating for the absolute freedom of adolescents regarding the management of their online medical portals. Countries should allow private management of electronic health records (EHR). These will reduce the fear of adolescent minors from receiving treatment like a sexually transmitted disease. (Anoshivani et al. 2012). A data breach or any leaked patient information can expose the medical facility to a lawsuit for laxity in handling the patient's data.

High cost
The cost can be a challenge for the implementation of the ERH. Finances are a significant factor and can be categorized as follows maintenance, adoption, and application. Maintenance costs include the cost associated with hardware and software maintenance and repairs. The ERH providers have to be trained to repair the hardware and update the software regularly. Experienced information technology staff have to be employed as they train and support other teams. This is a costly affair.


Difficulty in adoption
General health practitioners are having a difficult time adopting the digital format. Communication done by the physician is mostly online; these reduce interaction and communication between the medical practitioners and the patients. Quality patient care is critical when providing health care, yet this seems impossible by the fact that the physician is stressed. Lower job satisfaction as the physician does not get a chance to interact with a patient face to face. Physician exhaustion is a dominant issue in the healthcare system. Fatigue is associated with reduced patient safety, lower patient satisfaction, and high instances of misconduct assertions. Electronic health records contribute to physician exhaustion due to the troublesome user interface. The time required by the physician to document and upload their work has increased, thus decreasing the time they need to take care of their patient and being with their family. Data entry also demands a substantial amount of time. (Nykanen et al. 2018).

Resistance of change
Change is inevitable, but the health staff is resisting and making it hard to implement the EHR. This resistance felt among the patient and the community at large. Resistance by staff causes medical practitioners to undergo extensive training. They have to redesign their traditional way of operation. Physicians train to exert confidence in their workplace, and when the attribute is being threatened, then they are bound to resist. The new system generates negative comments, and this brings about resistance among the workers. New technology comes along with new problems, and the staff is worried about that also. (Hoerbst, A., 2016)

Other factors
Accidental consequences can be created by the system, and this may include increased medical blunders, undesirable feelings, power structure changes, and over usage of technology. There is an association between the use of computerized physician order entry and an upward increase in medical error either because of the system of the absence of an end to end-user training or poor interface designed. Technology disrupts end-users workflow as they experience emotional struggle. The chain of administrative power may be disrupted due to EHR implementation. A doctor is blocked by the system to do some more tests for a patient. This means the doctor has no autonomy over their patient. Health providers tend to rely more on this technology. Health facilities should ensure that primary health care is still provided even when there is no technology. Overdependence on technology can cause a big problem, especially when there is downtime during a critical time.


Conclusion
In conclusion, we see that health workers require more face time with their patients. They also want their patient to receive the best primary care without looking over their shoulders for negative comments from a system. The system must be tailor-made to cater to both the health workers and the community at large.