Introduction
In the era of the modern technology, electronic health records are used to keep the information about patient’s mental and physical conditions, personal background and various illnesses (Carter, 2008). Using this approach allows retrieving the data rapidly and avoiding the loss of the information. For instance, nurses can easily access and evaluate the condition of the patient by using electronic records. It could be said that this technological innovation has a beneficial impact on the quality of healthcare and increases retaliation of the patient to use the services of the medical facility. This trend takes place since this technological novelty reduces the waiting time (Poissant, Pereira, Tamblyn, & Kawasumi, 2005). Furthermore, it is evident that this aspect optimizes the storage of information and reduces the space required for this procedure. Overall, it could be said that it has a beneficial impact on the quality of the healthcare delivery while applying the concepts of patient-centered care.
Consequently, the primary goal of this paper is to access the nature of electronic records with the assistance of the examples. Meanwhile, the significance of the personal experience cannot be underestimated, as it emphasizes the potential impact of electronic registers on the individual traits. Thus, highlighting positive and negative matters will help evaluate the benefits and possibilities for improvement of electronic records. In the end, the conclusions are drawn to summarize the findings and determine the future development of the phenomenon.
Examples of the Topic
As for the examples of using patient records, there are electronic medical records and electronic health records. In this case, the electronic medical records imply paying substantial attention to the medical issues only (Manca, 2015). Using this technology helps physician represent the information and testing visually in the form of charts and graphs (Manca, 2015). It could be said that this type of electronic records has a positive impact on the effectiveness of the physicians and the quality of healthcare. Nonetheless, it does not increase the accuracy of medical prescriptions and diagnoses.
In turn, another example is electronic health records. The primary difference from medical records is the fact this kind of registers discovers the state of the patient from different angles. It takes into account medical, psychological, and physical condition of the patient (Menachemi & Collum, 2011). Based on the factors provided above, it could be said that this type of documentation offers explicit data about the patient’s current condition (Menachemi & Collum, 2011). This aspect increases the accuracy of prescriptions and helps minimize medical errors. A combination of these features explains the reasons for the prioritization of electronic health records in the medical institutions.
Personal Experience
Despite pursuing a career in the nursing sphere, my personal example pertains to receiving medical assistance in the hospital. To focus on the positive experience, the quality of the service was extremely high, and I was able to receive the medical prescription within the limited time. These aspects highlight two advantageous features of using electronic health records, and one of them is the easy retrieval of information and simultaneous cost-efficiency (Ozair, Jamshed, Sharma, & Aggarwal, 2015). Therefore, another one is referred to as the improved quality of healthcare services (Ozair et al., 2015; Poissant et al., 2005).
Nonetheless, the negative experience was present. Continuous sharing of data and its free access developed my concerns about the safety of the stored information. It is widely known that “technologies can introduce some hazards”, and this aspect makes the stored information vulnerable (Ozair et al., 2015, p. 73). It remains apparent that this issue is a challenge to the modern healthcare due to the rising importance of technology. However, one of the potential solutions is to focus on electronic safety while minimizing the possibility of information leakage. In this case, securing electronic health records with “an encrypted password” is one of the basic options to improve safety (Ozair et al., 2015, p. 73).
Conclusion
In the end, originally, electronic health records were meant to optimize the effectiveness of the decision-making, increase cost-efficiency, and improve the quality of the healthcare. Nonetheless, the findings depicted above highlight that despite the initial positive intentions, the electronic health records might elevate the issues of confidentiality and ethical concerns. In this case, focusing on the information security is one of the solutions to avoid the development of these matters. As for the future of the topic, it will continue being under the debate. Its compliance with legal issues will always be the major concern for the medical practitioners and governmental authorities (Friedman, Parrish, & Ross, 2013).
It could be said that this research offers new insights, as it provides the evaluation of the electronic health records from the personal perspective. In this case, focusing on details will have a beneficial impact on the overall quality of the healthcare. In this instance, this study and assessment could be viewed as a first step for the future research, which discovers the issue not only from the point of the medical facility but also considers an individual viewpoint of a patient.
References
Carter, J. (2008). Electronic health records: A guide for clinicians and administrators. Philadelphia, PA: ACP Press.
Friedman, D., Parrish, R., & Ross, D. (2013). Electronic health records and US public health: Current realities and future promise. American Journal of Public Health, 103(9), 1560-1567.
Manca, D. (2015). Do electronic medical records improve quality of care? Canadian Family Physician, 61(10), 846-847.
Menachemi, N., & Collum, T. (2011). Benefits and drawbacks of electronic healthcare system. Journal of Risk Management and Healthcare Policy, 4, 47-55.
Ozair, F., Jamshed, N., Sharma, A., & Aggarwal, P. (2015). Ethical issues in electronic health records: A general overview. Perspectives in Clinical Research, 6(2), 73-76.
Poissant, L., Pereira, J., Tamblyn, R., & Kawasumi, Y. (2005). The impact of electronic health records on time efficiency of physicians and nurses: A systematic review. The Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 12(5), 505-516.