The benefits of adopting electronic medical records in healthcare
The benefits of adopting electronic medical records in healthcare include providing a medication history for patients. Electronic medical records comprise of charts that offer historical health conditions of the patient that have been diagnosed in a particular healthcare organization like the dates of immunizations, and any lab data for any laboratory test. Such historical information may provide the basis for the treatment of the patient. Another benefit is that electronic medical records help in the storage of patient’s information. Reis et al. (2017), asserted that patient’s information stored in electronic medical records might be printed or emailed to other authorized users for future reference. In addition, electronic medical records are likely to enhance data security since the information is not allowed to move out of the healthcare organization. Some of the barriers to electronic medical records include costing huge capital and fear of obsolescence. Electronic medical records used for documentation may be expensive to acquire compared to the fewer returns, especially for smaller healthcare organizations. Many small organizations realize that electronic medical records do not have value for money for their organizations, and thus they are not convinced to acquire them.
In addition, electronic medical records are bound to become obsolete within a short time, and thus many organizations may find it difficult to incorporate such systems in their documentation. If the systems become obsolete, an organization may lose critical information. The challenges of electronic medical records include difficulties in training. Lee et al. (2017), hinted that some healthcare organizations might find it difficult to train their staff on electronic medical records considering the large amounts of work that the staff may have on a daily basis. In addition, a healthcare organization may face resistance from healthcare workers when adopting electronic medical records. Healthcare workers may fear that electronic medical records may change their way of doing things, or they may not be convinced of the benefits of the new systems. Medical considerations of advanced practice registered nurses include any severe reactions to drugs, any allergic conditions, and recommended medications. Legal considerations for advanced practice registered nurses include proper recording of names, dates, and any drugs administered. Nurses should ensure that any documentation they make is authentic and can withstand a legal claim.
References
Reis, Z. S. N., Maia, T. A., Marcolino, M. S., Becerra-Posada, F., Novillo-Ortiz, D., & Ribeiro, A. L. P. (2017). Is there evidence of cost benefits of electronic medical records, standards, or interoperability in hospital information systems? Overview of systematic reviews. JMIR medical informatics, 5(3), e26.
Lee, C., Luo, Z., Ngiam, K. Y., Zhang, M., Zheng, K., Chen, G., … & Yip, W. L. J. (2017). Big healthcare data analytics: Challenges and applications. In Handbook of Large-Scale Distributed Computing in Smart Healthcare (pp. 11-41). Springer, Cham.