Medical_Information_Systems

Running Head: MEDICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS 2 There are several functions that are associated with a patient’s medical records. This record is used for not only to document a patient’s care but is also used for their financial and legal information as well as for research. The information in a medical record is shared by many different healthcare professionals; therefore it continues to be a problem with so many medical offices still using the paper based files. Even though there are several disadvantages as well as advantages, it is becoming more apparent that an electronic medical system could be more beneficial to the patient as well as to the medical provider. Running Head: MEDICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS 3 In today’s world of healthcare, many hospitals and doctor’s offices are switching over to a computerized medical system even though there are as many disadvantages as there are advantages because of the benefits that it offers for the patient and physicians not to mention how it makes things run smoother in the billing department. A brief description of Electronic medical Records (EMR) is that it is an information sharing system for both the patient and the physician. The Physician can add their diagnosis, prescriptions for the patient or any research that is done into a web based file and the patient and any other physician they have can access this file from any computer anywhere (Healthday, 2009). As with any new system there are always disadvantages as well as some great advantages. With the ever changing technology, storing files and getting information quickly has been made easier and more efficient not to mention convenient to everyone in the healthcare field. Unfortunately as with any computerized programs there are the risks of security as being one of the biggest disadvantages. According to Business Week, the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Associations did a recent study on more than 1000 family practice physicians and specialist physicians on how they felt about electronic medical records. “It was found that 16 percent of these doctors were very concerned about possible privacy breaches and about 55 percent were somewhat concerned. However this same study showed that 86 percent of the doctors thought that the electronic medical record would help to improve patient care, 70 percent thought it would reduce cost and 76 percent thought it would help to save time” (2010). Running Head: MEDICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS 4 Other disadvantages of an electronic healthcare system would be the cost of starting it up which would include the computers that would have to be installed and the man power it would take to upload all the files already in existence. The healthcare workers as well as the physician that will be using these computers will need to be trained to operate this computerized system. The way the billing department will undergo many changes as well and until everybody learns their job and remembers to input everything into the computer that would originally go into a paper based file then there may be a few mistakes made and so more in house audits would have to be performed to make sure mistakes were corrected. There are many advantages to an electronic health system once everything is worked out and running smoothly. One such advantage would be the patient’s quality of care would be greatly enhanced by the amount of information that is at hand and made readily available (EMR 2010). Other advantages would be quicker diagnosis leading to faster treatments, in a paper based file, information can often go uncompleted or someone’s writing could be illegible. With a computerized file, data is put in right then and no worries about not being able to read a doctor’s handwriting. Another big advantage is that all the patient’s information such as allergies is in the file and if rushed to the hospital in an emergency, medication can be administered right then without having to wait until someone can go to the file room and look up the patient’s file and hand deliver it to the attending physician and that is if the patient even has a file there. It could save an out of state person’s life that came into a hospital due to a life threatening emergency. Running Head: MEDICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS 5 Conclusion Confidentiality and security issues are concerns with both paper based and electronic based medical records but with today’s technology there are many security techniques available that will help prevent unauthorized access to a patient’s file. Some of these techniques include firewalls, passwords and monitored audit trails that monitor who accesses these records (Manda Spring, 2008). Even though there are so many disadvantages to using electronic medical record systems there are just as many advantages that would be very beneficial to any health care practice and to their patients. Running Head: MEDICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS 6 References EMR (April 30, 2010) Electronic Medical records. Retrieved January 6, 2010 from http://healthcarehacks.com/pros-and-cons-of-electronic-medical-records Healthday (2009) Pros and Cons of Electronic Medical Records. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/634091.html Spring, M. (December 16, 2008). EMR advantages and disadvantages. Retrieved from http://www.brighthub.com/health/technology/articles/7402.aspx