Public Online Health Information helps organize the interaction of healthcare providers, patients and payers through an integrated electronic patient health record and analytics that capture all data related to health care.
Duplication or non-provision of necessary services is incompatible with the concept of safe, effective, and quality medical care. Online health records bring together information from the entire healthcare system in real time and, thereby, eliminate gaps in a patient’s history that could lead to a lack of care, missed opportunities, or dangerous and costly duplicate appointments. It creates a long-term, unified patient record that provides effective, coordinated care and a foundation for managing public health. With built-in analysis tools and providing the right information on time and in the right place within the processes of service delivery, management and payment, electronic health records open up a number of possibilities. In particular, the actions of payers, providers, and patients are coordinated within the framework of the provision of medical services. In addition, unified virtual working groups are being created, regardless of the management structure, and the maintenance of clinical and administrative data, information on social determinants of health is brought together. Electronic records allow the healthcare professional to track the dynamics of a patient’s visit to a specialist. Of course, this information carrier allows being easily familiarized with every diagnosis that has ever been made to a patient.
Insufficient equipment availability, regulatory gaps and a lack of competent cybersecurity staff may at least lead to the disclosure of patient records.
The most significant disadvantage is that in the event of a power outage, the record becomes completely inaccessible – such a negative feature can significantly affect the patient’s treatment in emergency situations. The next disadvantage that should be noted is the possibility of theft of valuable information by computer fraudsters. In addition, an inpatient’s electronic record can be destroyed partially or completely if the main computer that stores the main database is damaged. Another noticeable drawback of this type of documentation is that it requires mandatory training of personnel to correctly work with the program. Young nurses and doctors learn quite quickly, sometimes even without outside help. However, older employees often find it difficult to master a variety of innovations. A significant problem arising in the implementation of an electronic medical record is the still existing gaps in the regulatory framework regarding electronic methods of maintaining medical records, which would ensure their legal status and effective use in medicine and healthcare.
References
Sittig, D., Wright, A., Coiera, E., Magrabi, F. (2018). Current challenges in health information technology–related patient safety. Health Information Journal, 26(1), 1-9.
U.S. Government Accountability Office (2017). Electronic health records, HHS strategy to address information exchange challenges lacks specific prioritized actions and milestones: Report to congressional committees. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.