Ehr Advantages And Disadvantages

A. Advantages

I. Connecting doctors to their patients – paint a complete picture of the patient

One of the many purposes of EHR is to connect doctors to their patients with the information contained in the patient profile. The data, if concise and makes sense, will assist the health care provider, primarily doctors, in giving quality care to the patient (Sinsky, 2014). It adds value for the patient because it minimizes paper work and repetition of information. Also, in the case of an emergency the patient’s information is readily accessible and available to the treating health care workers. This can save much needed time in life-threatening medical situations. Unnecessary, or duplication of treatments, or medications, can be avoided

The process is also time consuming. Because primary care is viewed as the repository of health care, primary care physicians feel the brunt of the transitional effect to electronic documentation the most (Walker, 2005). They provide the essential information to other health care providers, such as specialty physicians, and are the gate keepers to other patient care. All of the aforementioned, impose themselves on the time a doctor spends with each patient and also require that most of that time be spent entering data in the patient’s electronic file.

III. Cost

There also major costs affiliated with the implementation to EHRs. Some of the costs are impacted by the acquisition of necessary tools for the transitional process. They include, but are not limited to, costs for both the hardware and software, appropriate training of staff, other services for installing and setting up equipment, and other support personnel. Time spent on setting up this kind of system takes away from patient care which can reduce the amount of billable time which can further add to the expense of