Pros And Cons Of Ehr

The main purpose of EHRs is to mainly exchange health information electronically to help improve quality and safety for patients. Four pros of EHRs is to provide accurate and recent information of the patients, allow for quick access to the patient records, share the health information securely, and make patient records and notes legible. These four points are important and necessary because the goal overall is to improve public health. Patient information should always be updated and current. Health professionals need to easily have access to patient records to either update them or verify the information. Also, health professionals can now avoid any discrepancies with electronic records verses when records were completely on paper.

Electronic

Health Records also have their short comings, such as power and system failures, internet crashes, cost, security risk with patient information and health professionals not wanting to merge to the new system. The cost issue of EHRs mostly involves the beginning stages with implementation and getting every trained properly to use the system. If the internet just so happens to crash due to loss of power or connectivity, some important data could possibly be lost and prevent the healthcare professionals from being able to access the patient records and notes. Others feel that the patient’s privacy is too sensitive and will not be secure. Training of staff also seems to be difficult for those who are against EHRs and for the older healthcare professional will not adjust well to change. Overall, “EHRs may cause several unintended consequences, such as increased medical errors, negative emotions, changes in power structure, and overdependence on technology” (Menachemi).