Electronic Health Records in Small Practices

Aiding the Little Man:

Electronic Health Records in Small Practices

Since small practices provide care for the majority of the population in the United States, according to Begum et al. (2013), it is important to set goals as to improving its assets in healthcare delivery. This paper is going to delve into the status of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) in small, non-hospital settings, as well as policies that can help relieve current burdens. First and foremost, the definition and purpose of EHRs should be defined. It is a system of computerized patient health records that can be conveniently updated and instantly accessed by authorized personnel. This system is a worthy asset because it enhances patient information consolidation, clearness, organization, recollection, and markedly, communication. Second, small medical practice, as stated by Goetz Goldberg, Kuzel, Feng, DeShazo, & Love (2012), is defined as an institution that has no more than 10 physicians under its workforce.

In the study, “Electronic Health Records in Small Physician Practices: Availability, Use, and Perceived Benefits,” Rao et al. (2011) conduct observations in the variation in the adoption, barriers, and perceived benefits of EHRs in various physician practice sizes. It concludes that in smaller practices, there are lower rates of EHR adoption, and that if implemented, it would be less likely to be utilized to its fullest potential. Moreover, they observe that such institutions continue to face financial and technical support challenges, and the most common theory that most policymakers have in terms of chief burdens they face include: the lack of access to funds; implementation complications; lack of understanding of benefits; and lower capability to ma...

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... care practices are less expected to adopt EHRs, and that most of those practices with EHR systems do not meet the basic standards for meaningful use. This particular issue is important to address because nationally, small practices are where the majority of individuals obtain care and where most physicians work. With this statistical fact, it is imperative to not only focus monetary and technical resources on larger healthcare institutions—aid must be distributed to the “little man,” as well. With the more prominent and popular healthcare image of big general hospitals and its crowds of large support companies, and despite the policies and regulations in place to support practices with no more than 10 providers, small medical practices should not be left behind in terms of improving its assets, such as the implementation, maintenance, and improvement of EHRs.