Electronic Medical Record

“As many Dutch health care providers already exchange patient data by means of local or regional electronic information systems, their reluctance to adopt the n-EPR (electronic patient record) is quite remarkable” (Zwaanswijk, Verheij, Wiesman, & Friele, 2011). The electronic health record supposedly helps improve the health care provider’s access to important health information in regards to the patient’s data and should help improve efficiency, continuity, safety, and quality of care (Zwaanswijk, 2011). According to Zwaanswijk, et al., (2011) the electronic health record might be viewed as a benefit for most, however, a third of the providers are showing some reluctance to this new concept.

Incentives
The United States congress has been encouraging the use of electronic health records by offering monetary incentives to those who are willing to participate and follow the designed criteria (Alder-Milstein, Bates, & Jha, 2011). The problem with this is how to incorporate the flow of information amongst other groups, such as between clinics, laboratories, or other health providers (Gunningberg, 2011). According to Gunningberg, et al., (2011) the use of regional health information organizations (RHIO), could help eliminate this problem through one single connection. The big questions are how many RHIO are there, how do they support the data exchange, how many providers are participating, and how many RHIO are economically visible (Gunningberg, et al., 2011)? Even though this sounds like an excellent idea there is limited data on how the RHIO are doing and whether they are helping the health care providers meet the needed criteria (Gunningberg, 2011).

Benefits of Electronic Medical Records
According to Vogel, (2011) some of the benefits of this type electronic information is the patient’s ability to schedule their appointments online, be able to refill prescriptions and view parts of their chart via web anytime of the day. The electronic medical records allows quicker access to test results, the ability to share information with other medical providers with fewer chances of hand writing based errors or duplicating tests. The patient can review what was talked about during a visit and receive a legible print out that is easy to read on regarding the conversation (Vogel, 2011).

Perceived Problems
A few perceived problems in regards to electronic health data exchange has to do with confidentiality and security (Zwaanswijk, 2011). The system would need to have security system that could protect the patient’s medical data, and few ways in which this could be obtained is by allowing only certain members of the health care team to be allowed to access patient information and monitoring the log in’s into these areas (Zwaanswijk, 2011). The electronic health record has the possibility to be a very valuable tool in auditing information on quality of care provided (Gunningberg, Fogelberg-Dahm & Ehrenberg, 2008). Of course, the only problem with this electronic information highway is keeping the patient information private (Vogel, 2011).
Donna S

Reference
Alder-Milstein, J, Bates, D, & Jha, A, (2011), A survey of health information exchange organizations in the United States: implications for meaningful use, American College of Physicians, 154, pp. 666-671, www.annals.org.
Gunningberg, L, Fogelberg, M, & Ehrenberg, A, (2008), Improved quality and comprehensiveness in nursing documentation of pressure ulcers after implementing an electronic health record in hospital care, Journal of Clinical Nursing, 18, pp. 1557-1564, DOI:10.1111/j.1365-2702.2008.02647.x.
Vogel, J, (2011), Electronic records mandate strains rural hospitals, MPRNEWS, www.minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/06/20/ground-level-rural-health-care-electronic-medical-records/
Zwaanswijk, M, Verheij, R, Wiesman, F, and Friele, R, (2011), Benefits and problems of electronic information exchange as perceived by health care professionals: an interview study, BMC Health Services Research, 11, 256, pp. 1-10, www.biomedcentral.com