Medical records are pivotal for keeping track of patients’ information, affecting many patient documents, hospitals, and insurance companies.
Moreover, keeping manual clinical records can be detailed and erroneous, and at the same time, these records can be lost over time when not appropriately kept.
An electronic medical record is a digital medical record system that either originates electronically or is converted from a handwritten copy to an online version.
Records like these include a patient’s name, contact number, age, gender, and emergency contact number.
Keeping records is vital on its own, and keeping electronic records is one of the best medical practice a healthcare industry or patient care center can make.
The history of digital records began back in the 1960s. The Mayo Clinic first initiated it in Rochester, Minnesota, and since then, the whelm of keeping such records has been spreading far and wide.
Table of Contents
1. Quick access to patient’s health records
The number of people who attend any hospital is enormous. Imagine writing everyone’s data down, and when the patient comes to the hospital again, searching for their data from the pile of records. Hectic, isn’t it?
Keeping records of the patient was an excellent idea from the start. The approach was manual in paper charts, and in the previous century, it worked just fine.
The number of people in the world has increased, and in the same way, people attending hospitals have increased.
Therefore, getting the correct patient records from paper records at the right time for healthcare providers has become challenging.
Electronic records enable us to access any patient’s data with just a click of a button. And this electronic patient record is both healthcare team access and patient access.
In a world where communication and conveying data on time are given the top priority, it is not new for data to get into the wrong hands. This is why patients do not adequately disclose their medical condition.
Electronic records can easily overcome this problem of data being mishandled. Only certain groups of people have permission to access your information in the electronic records to secure patient information.
Even if the data needs to be shared with other health care provider, it can be done effectively and securely through electronic records.
3. Reduce medical errors
Computer data, when entered correctly, have no chance of having any errors even after being checked many years later.
Moreover, when the patient chart is being entered manually, many subjective factors, for example, handwriting, come into play.
If the writer’s handwriting is misread by another person assembling the data after many years, it can lead to a severe medical error. Nonetheless, electronic records help to eliminate errors like these.
4. Accurate, up to date and complete information about the patient
When the data of a patient goes into the electronic health record system, it will be recorded until removed.
If patients return to the hospital many years later, their data will be available in the patient portals.
The health care organization can add additional data to keep the records up to date and verify accurate results with the help of electronic health records.
5. Convenient health care services
Isn’t it the worst to search for all your receipts, treatment documents, insurance sheets, and medical-related files? Well, Using electronic records removes this hectic task.
E-records have potential benefits track the patient’s health problem with the help of previous health records.
They can be assigned to the designated healthcare professionals, the one who holds a specialty in that field, or the doctor who has previously examined the patient.
The computerized data could eventually make the delivery of health care services convenient for medical staff.
6. High reliability
Unless modified, there is no doubt there will be a change in digital versions as the medical charts do not allow unauthorized access.
Unlike paper-based system, that could be damaged over years of storage because the paper could get molded.
The writings on it could fade, causing considerable havoc; therefore, how could manual data be called reliable?
Because every step of the way, there are chances for it to be eligible and modified! That is also one of the reasons why electronic records are considered more reliable.
7. Increased privacy and security of patient data
Only the concerned authority will have the right to access the patient’s information. The password in digital systems makes the accessibility very private.
Electronic records are very secure, and there are few chances for others to get the data. The patient giving his/her data to the hospital can do so without worrying.
This closed and secured network system will give the patient confidence to disclose the required medical history.
The patient’s treatment can be done on time using the required infrastructures and with the help of the right doctors.
8. Reduced cost
Decreased paperwork means the cost of recording data is automatically low. Similarly, the duplication of data is less, meaning there is no waste of space, ultimately saving a good amount of money.
Electronic records not only save money but also saves a lot of space. The file-keeping records of 10,000 patients could fill up a whole room. When saved on the computer or electronically, it can save space, time, and money.
9. Improves patient’s health outcome
The main factor is vital in a patient’s treatment in time. When a patient gets timely treatment, there is a high chance of success rate and a higher chance of better health outcomes.
Electronic data saves time and money and improves patients’ health outcomes by providing the correct data at the right time.
Sharing records with the authorized doctors in time, and most importantly, the data can be easily obtained to perform required actions as quickly as possible.
10. Securing the future health records availability
It is easier to obtain a patient’s information using a computer than by searching each file.
Furthermore, when a patient comes to a hospital after several years, there is a high chance for the file to get lost or damaged. Electronic health records completely replace this factor of losing or damaging the file.
Due to the electronic records, patients, doctors, or hospital administration do not need to worry about securing the health records for the future.
11. Improved patient care coordination
The physicians must access the patient’s necessary health information for a patient to recover completely.
One of the key reasons why the doctors, except the primary treating physician, fail to diagnose the problem of the referred patient is because of incomplete or insufficient patient information.
Suppose an electronic recording system is used in such cases. In that case, the data transfer is available to the specific treating physician.
There will be good coordination between the working team of the doctors and the patient.
12. Decrease fallacy from the patient’s side
There is a high trend of patients giving out false information on a second visit to the hospital due to reasons of insurance, financing, or other causes.
If only manual data are available, the patient can have every right to doubt the writer or the authority saying that he/she wrote the information wrong in the past or changed data manually.
The trend of such a fallacy from the patient side can also be minimized to zero using electronic records because only a few personnel are given access to the data. Once inserted, it cannot be modified without any verifications.
Recording data is a vital aspect of the medical field for treatment, insurance, financing, and even legal causes.
However, when such records are only maintained through manual systems, it can give rise to a series of problems.
Electronic health records are a perfect system for securing the data and keeping it in good form for many years, which is why this data recording system is preferred these days globally.
(Last Updated on August 23, 2022)
