Advantages and disadvantages of Electronic Health Records

[Roger Steven]

Electronic Health Records (EHR) or electronic medical records (EMR), as they are called, are of enormous use in the fields of healthcare and medical sciences. They have a number of features that enable the patient; the medical professional and the healthcare provider have complete and unimaginably easy access to all important records that relate to the patient.

A direct result of the development of IT; EHR's and EMR's may have their advantages, but they also come with many disadvantages. Eternal vigilance and scrutiny at multiple levels is the price one has to pay for bringing healthcare to the fingertips of the people who matter. A slight lapse here and there and the whole system can go into a tailspin, creating havoc.

Highly sought after information in the black market

Information that is extremely confidential, such as the patient’s health condition, is very susceptible to data leaks and breaches. It is estimated that health records command a far higher price in the black market than even social security and credit cards. Why is an EHR so coveted? Because access to it helps pharmaceutical companies target their products and ads, since these records give the most accurate representation of the demographics for a product.

This makes the security of patient data and healthcare records a matter of critical importance. EHR's come with other disadvantages:

• Setting up and maintaining these records are very expensive
• These being a product of technology; they emphasize more on billing rather than on provision of clinical care
• They take a long time to get trained in an used to
• Lag in interoperability across systems
• They sometimes impede the physician-patient relationship

Learning on how to overcome the deficiencies of EHR's and optimize their use

A clear discussion on the pros and cons of EHR's and the ways of overcoming the shortcomings of these technologies will be the topic of a webinar that is being organized by MentorHealth, a leading provider of professional trainings for the healthcare industry. This webinar will have Maggie Gunter, Director of Medical Outcomes Research, Albuquerque, NM, as speaker. Dr. Gunter is an experienced and respected health services researcher and medical sociologist who was among the early innovators in disease management, case management, and use of data to evaluate and improve care and measure population health.

To benefit from the insight and knowledge that Dr. Gunter brings into this topic, please register for this webinar .This Course is approved for 1 general credit from the Nevada Board of Continuing Legal Education.

Of relevance to all stakeholders

This webinar will offer a discussion of both the positive and negative aspects of EHR's. Dr. Gunter will offer practical and valuable advice on how to manage EHR's by reducing their negative impact on healthcare providers, patients, payers, healthcare professionals, researchers and other important stakeholders. This webinar will be of immense use to professionals whose work closely uses EHR's and EMR's, such as Physicians and other Providers, Hospital Information Technology Leaders in Health Settings, Case Managers, Health Plans and other Payers, Quality Improvement Specialists, and Epidemiologists and Outcome Researchers.

Dr. Gunter will cover the following areas at this webinar:

-        Current status of EMR implementation in healthcare

 

-        EMR strengths and weaknesses (e.g., improved legibility, continuity, and access, enhanced prevention, but privacy and security issues, lack of interoperability, not user friendly, excessive documentation time)

 

-        Examples of effective approaches for using EMRs more effectively and engaging patients

 

-        Discussion of healthcare settings where EMRs have been most effective and why (what contextual factors are essential to implementation success)

 

-        Description and discussion of the changes that must be made in the near future to more fully realize the full promise of EMRs in enhancing patient care, making providers more efficient and more satisfied in their work, engaging patients in their care, enhancing the provider-patient relationship, improving efficiency and reducing costs, improving patient outcomes, protecting patient privacy, and providing data useful in quality of care measurement, outcomes research, and population health

 

-        Question and answer time will be provided to allow the audience to discuss their experiences, share insights, and ask relevant questions.