Many of us are still unaware of the term, Electronic Health Record (EHR). EHR is the digital record of a patient’s medical history. EHR ensures that health information is available instantly only to authorized users in a secured manner. These records are real-time patient-centered records and this system has been developed in order to go beyond the standard clinical data that is collected in a provider’s office.
An EHR:
- Contains the medical information of a patient including diagnoses, treatment plans and procedures, medications, radiology images, laboratory and test results.
- Allows connections to evidence-based tools that a provider can use to take decisions about a patient’s care.
One of the main feature of EHR is that the medical information can be shared with other providers across different healthcare organizations. The information can also be shared with organizations such as pharmacies, laboratories, specialists, emergency facilities and clinics of school and workplace. This feature ensures that information from all clinicians are involved in the record.
This concept is quite different from that of Electronic Medical Records (EMR). The difference lies in a single word, health. Health indicates the sound condition of the body that is free from any pain or disease. EMRs were used by clinicians for diagnosis and treatment and it involves only the ‘Medical’ record of patients.
The main benefits of EHR:
Digital technology has radically transformed our world including our daily lives and the communication medium through smart phones and every web enabled device. EHR ensures the smooth flow of important information within the digital infrastructure of healthcare. This flow will ensure digital progress and it will help in transforming the way care is being delivered to patients.
EHRs ensures that relevant information is available whenever and wherever it is required. To point out the benefits, it ensures:
Improved care and increase in patient participation
Improved diagnostics and patient outcomes
Upgraded care coordination.
Cost effectiveness.
Current status of EHR:
The current status of EHR involves both good and bad. Let us first discuss the good part. One of the main advantage of EHR is the speed and efficiency in accessing the health-related information. Data are easily filtered and it allows the provider with vital information that was not possible in the past. Organizations are adopting this method because of such an advantage. The provider can be aware of the drug incompatibilities and they can also access the information of patients visit to other facilities and this facility was not available at the time of paper records. This facility also ensures that the chance of medical errors is reduced.
EHR promotes teamwork in between the providers thereby increasing the scope of telemedicine opportunities and remote monitoring. Such a feature has ensured that same examinations are not repeated thereby reducing the cost and time involved in the treatment process.
Now let’s come to the bad part of EHR. There is innumerable risk involved since its association with technology. Even though EHRs are reliable but there always remains a chance for the theft of patient information. Inserting computer viruses into the system also pose as a serious consequence. Providers have also voiced their frustration with regard to this technology. The system leads to compatibility issues, disruptions in the flow of work along with various other obstacles. Such barriers are forcing the providers to resort to paper notetaking when a patient visits and they completes the process of data input at a later time.
The result of a May 2016 that was conducted in 6 large, diverse states suggests that the adoption of EHR and its use is not having a meaningful impact on the ultimate outcome. The results have indicated that this system has proven beneficial for billing and compliance measure but it is yet to affect patient outcome. The results have not changed much till today and providers are still coping with various sorts of barriers.
Possible cons of EHR:
Even after a considerable number of benefits, this system of electronically stored health data is not free of a few disadvantages. There is a constant need to be careful about the security of data. The organizations that are adopting this method are in constant need to be aware of possible cyber-crimes as well as of malicious hackers.
According to the latest news, hackers are installing malware on the server of the organization so as to obtain ransom. The main aim of such hackers is the hold of such health records until they receive the ransom money. When such a situation takes place, providers are not able to access patient information thereby slowing down the work. This may even affect the organizations reputation as general people may become aware of the situation.
To avoid such a situation, organizations are in the need to adopt cloud based EHR that will ensure that a backup can be quickly availed. This will also ensure that the organization is able to avoid server problem or natural disaster wherein there is a need to move the staff to a new location.
The other solution to this problem is blockchain technology. This technology is a system of a distributed database. To avoid any sort of medical errors, to improve the quality outcomes and to protect the data, blockchain technology is required. The use of blockchain will ensure that data are not distorted and the provider can easily access the information. The data stored in blockchain EHR are protected with a complex privacy key. Data are protected with individual patient level with a numeric public key which will ensure that hackers are not able to relate the data with the specific patient. Likewise, the physician will not be able to look into the data of any other patient within the same healthcare system. Such a blockchain based EHR will allow the patient to become sole owners of their data.
PatientMD is one such healthcare platform which is working on blockchain technology for its EHR implementation to solve the data management issues of healthcare providers so that they can focus solely on patient care and to solve the privacy and security issues of patients.
Another possible con of EHR is that if it is not updated on a regular basis, it implies that the organization has not invested in the future of the software. The organizations might also fail to upgrade their EHR based on the regulations of the government and industry best practices.
Future scope of EHR:
It might have been difficult to forecast the present importance and use of EHR. The present and new EHR technology will prove beneficial in the way of providing standards for interoperable applications that takes the hep of social, economic, behavioral, environmental and health data so as to establish a communication and thereby act in an intelligent manner even in cases of complex healthcare information. It is however, predicted by experts that EHR will be a critical tool to support the changes of the changing healthcare system. Some of the few inevitable factors will be expenditures, systematic hiccups and failures. These will definitely have disturbing effect on health systems. Revising the EHR system in a wise manner will prove beneficial in saving a number of quality-of-life years as well as millions of dollars. Health administrators will be required to adapt to changing situations and applying successful tactics.