Electronic Medical Records Case Study

1046 Words3 Pages

Medical records are already a huge part of the medical industry and pretty soon electronic medical records will be a standard in all doctors’ offices and hospitals. These records are still in the integration process so not all doctors and hospitals are using them yet. There needs to be a way to reassure patients that when they have their information entered into electronic records they are safe and that the people who work with those records are handling them properly. Electronic medical records also need to be protected from outside threats as well as any accident that could occur with software or hardware malfunctions. Medical entities need educating to ensure these records are going to be protected.
Developers that make the software used …show more content…

With just a click of a mouse or the push of a button a diagnosis, symptoms, or even prescriptions are entered into your chart. By 2015 the federal law will require all doctors and hospitals to start using electronic records (“Data Glitches Are Hazardous..”). While this is may be more convenient there are issues that arise. Doctors and medical professionals have an easier time putting information into the programs and make it easier to access. This is where a major issue presents itself. It becomes very easy for inputted health information to contain errors. A doctor or other medical professional can easily enter information into the wrong chart or put in a wrong diagnosis and if it isn’t caught it can create problems, especially if a patient needs to see a specialist. The same can happen for prescriptions that are sent and stored electronically. It is easy to send the wrong prescription or wrong dosage and a patient can ultimately be harmed if the record is not double checked before it is sent to the …show more content…

Electronically entering medical information helps ease the space taken up by paper records, especially from patients that have large files. Another advantage is being able to access records from another doctor without having to fax information or the previous method of carting around paper copies of your chart. Sending a prescription electronically also has a major benefit, as a patient no longer would need to drop a paper script off to the pharmacy and wait. The script would be sent directly to the pharmacy and from there the pharmacist would go over the prescribed drug and error check then process the prescription. It allows the patient to drive directly to the pharmacy after a doctor visit and their medication would be ready and waiting. Most of all the software for the electronic records provide a doctor to accurately enter a diagnosis and sub diagnosis without having to look it up codes in a medical book. It also allows a doctor to enter notes much easier because it takes the guess work out of questionable handwriting. I agree that medical records will be very beneficial once I feel they are safe. I still feel there needs to be a lot worked out with the safety of my health information and making sure I won’t ever feel like I can’t trust my own doctor. I enjoy the ease of having all my information in one spot and knowing if I were to

Open Document