The electronic medical record (EMR) refers to a paperless storage of medical records. It contains all medical history of a given patient from one practice. There is no use of papers or physical records when it comes to patient’s record keeping, but all medical information is kept on a digital platform where its retrieval is done digitally if there is a need.
Digital model of medical information storage has been in use for some time in various hospitals, and it is proved to be necessary and useful therefore not critical for the healthcare organization. There is a need to use an electronic medical record, as it provides the best way to store and retrieve one's medical records. The method is not critical, since the healthcare organization can handle it professionally to provide better services to their clients and relevant information for medical research.
Benefits of Using Electronic Medical Records
The purpose of using research in health administration is to help administrators provide efficient management of medical staff. Through research, they are in a position to take charge of compliance with numerous regulations and laws, which govern health system operations. Further, administrators can solve different medical problems, which might be facing the institution like the discovery of diagnosis that can cure various diseases effectively (Roberts & Priest, 2009).
Stakeholders play a significant role in research use, since they are the people who are affected by the research in a variety of ways. They contribute to ideas, which can be compelling to researchers. There is a need to involve them to bring about efficiency in medical activities.
There are some advantages of EMR, which involves storage and exchange of health information electronically. The platform helps health organizations provide high quality and safer care for patients and better health care through enhancing security and privacy of patient data. Safety and confidentiality mean a lot to patients and IT is the only way to encourage them to provide a real information, which experts use when carrying out research (Khalifa, 2017). The EMR ensures that there is no security and privacy breach of patient’s records, since only authorized individuals can access the information.
The use of electronic medical records promotes improved productivity and efficiency, since it aims at ensuring that patient information is available to everyone who needs it. When medical history is required retrieving all documented information, it becomes easier and faster. All the medical staff needs to do is to search information of a particular individual, and be available to them. There is an efficiency when using digital medical platforms (Abdekhoda et al., 2016). The EMR reduces redundancy, which is more in the traditional paperwork method, where each time a patient visits the hospital a new record is kept, and at the end of the day there is redundancy but using a digital platform storage is easy and efficient, as the elimination of redundancy is encouraged.
One can obtain aggregated data by using electronic medical records. Researchers need high-quality data that can be retrieved from multiple sources, and it is only possible through integrating multiple ERM systems from various medical organizations. Aggregated data is important, since it is detailed and provides insightful information about disease trend in a given region, therefore, making it easy to obtain relevant information.
There are improved relationships between clients and physicians when using electronic medical records. The prescription is clear and in a structured manner, summaries, medical notes, and consultation letter templates are well structured. Electronic records improve communication with patients by personal health records and patients portals, which engage patients in managing their care (Xu et al., 2016).
Conclusion
To conclude, the electronic medical records are a modern method of information storage. The EMR provides efficiency to health organizations by making file storage accessible and faster retrieval of patient records when needed. The method is beneficial, as patients get involved in managing their care and promote the relationship between families and medical practitioners (Roberts & Priest, 2009). There is improved productivity and efficiency, since it aims at ensuring that patient information is available. Therefore, the EMR is sufficient in research and administration.
References
Abdekhoda, M., et al. (2016). Applying electronic medical records in health care: Physicians' perspective. Applied Clinical Informatics, 7(2), 341-354. Retrieved on May, 2016 from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27437045
Khalifa, M. (2017). The perceived benefits of implementing and using hospital information systems and electronic medical records. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 238, 165-168. Retrieved on 2017 from http://ebooks.iospress.nl/publication/46854
Roberts, P., & Priest, H. (2009). Healthcare research: A handbook for students and practitioners. Wiley-Blackwell.
Xu, Y., et al. (2016). Development and validation of a method for defining conditions using Chinese electronic medical record. BMC Medical Informatics & Decision Making, 16, 1-8. Retrieved on August 20, 2016 from https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12911-016-0348-6
