Electronic Versus Paper Medical Records
The cost of health care has remained a significant concern for governments as it seems to rise every moment despite the milestones in health care. Management of these costs in healthcare may include expanding access to medical insurance. The efficacy of systems of health care systems depended on the increasing ability to keep down the cost. IT, which is already in use in healthcare facilities, has proven to be a game-changer in billing, procurement, procurement, pharmacy, and patient registration.
The concept of Electronic Medical Records is thus born, and this has made information pertaining to a patient available across the medical value chain. Although the aspect of paper records features prominently, there is a lot of transition to electronic management of data and information (Duranti, 2010). Paper records remain convenient when entering data; however, the retrieval and storage of information in the paper-based system can be expensive and inefficient. Documents on papers create severe logistical complications, and this may compromise the quality of health care offered. It is almost impossible to share paper-based information among institutions, and thus the determination of a patient’s medical history becomes a tall order. Electronic medical records, on the other hand, ease storage and the retrieval of information, and therefore duplication of effort is significantly reduced.
The electronic medical record method is auspicious in helping cut the overall costs that come with health records. Through the use of IT, the requirement for a warehouse to store paper-based information disappears. It makes data available from multiple sources, and the need to duplicate medical tests and examinations is eliminated since each caregiver can access the test results of a patient remotely since thee records are available in Electronic medical records. Electronic medical records assist in increasing efficiency in the entire health care chain. On top of keeping patients’ records, it has come in handy to be used in the medical supplies order, purchasing, and billing. Since financiers such as insurance companies are key partners, they are able to access information of the healthcare center they are about to partner. This information forms a basis for which they will offer competitive rates. This works to the advantage of the health care facility in question.
The biggest beneficiary of Electronic medical records is the patient. Patients are able to control the medical information since they can access their medical profile and update any supplementary information by making a permanent entry (Masoe et al., 2015). The risk of the wrong diagnosis is significantly reduced due to the fact that the caregiver has full the history of the patient. Secondly, costs on the patient’s side are considerably cut since cases of repeat tests do not arise upon moving from one caregiver to another. Duplication is mostly witnessed in paper records where records have been lost or irretrievably damaged. For the health caregivers, their tasks of data entry and manual documentation are significantly reduced. There is no requirement to file and sort paper files for storage, but data is safely stored via the click of a button. Similarly, the retrieval of this data is accessible through a quick search. It is from these records that they are able to make an informed course of treatment due to the reduced risk of misdiagnosis.
References
Duranti, L. (2010). Concepts and principles for the management of electronic records, or records management theory is archival diplomatics. Records Management Journal.
Masoe, A. V., Blinkhorn, A. S., Colyvas, K., Taylor, J., & Blinkhorn, F. A. (2015). Reliability study of clinical electronic records with paper records in the NSW Public Oral Health Service. Public Health Res Pract, 25(2), e2521519.
References