Medical Records And Health Records

Throughout history, the composition of medical records has changed immensely. In the book, The Golden Standard, the authors Timmermans & Berg (2003) elaborate on this, explaining how the medical records from the past are very different from the ones that exist today. They start off by describing what medical records were like during the early 20th century, noting how simple they were. They included only a few short sentences regarding the nature of the injury, the results of a urine test, and the mode of treatment that would be best (Timmermans & Berg 2003). It was also common that one might not even find any entries in the hospital’s records at all (Timmermans & Berg 2003). As can be seen, medical records during these times consisted of minimal

There are a lot of differences between the two, but nevertheless, they are both expected to help improve healthcare. To clarify, EHR stands for Electronic Health Record, and PHR refers to Personal Health Records. EHRs are computerized versions of a patient’s record that can be shared across providers. They are said to have the capability to: send orders such as tests/prescriptions, include clinical decision support systems, and have features to manage/respond to electronic messages received from patients (Timmermans & Berg 2003). They rely greatly on technology. On the other hand, PHRs are usually non-electronic records. In this type of medical record, patients have exclusive access to their health and medical information. In other words, the main difference between these two are that EHRs are handled by a wide range of medical professionals, while PHRs focus more on the patient’s own access to their health records. Both have gained a lot of attention throughout the recent years. Because of this, the federal government often encourages providers to adopt these new technologies. For example, in 2009, HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) was passed, clearly to promote the use of Health IT. The federal government also incentivizes providers to use EHRs by offering medicare and medicaid. As demonstrated, EHRs and PHRs are very different from each other, and it seems that this has created competition between the two. It is definitely apparent that Health IT is on the