What Are Electronic Medical Records?

By Author: Jamie Hanson
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Electronic medical records are gaining in popularity. These legal medical records are digitally stored on an organization's computer system. Examples of medical organizations that use electronic medical records include hospitals, outpatient healthcare facilities, and doctors' offices. Electronic medical records allow records to be stored, manipulated, and retrieved at any time.

Benefits
There are many benefits to using electronic medical records. First of all, they don't require physical space like paper medical records do. When electronic medical records are used health organizations find they have a significant amount of space freed up that may be used for treatment or other critical business activities. Not to mention, when organizations no longer use physical medical records they do not need to invest in paper, film, and other types of physical media that are not only bulky, but also quite expensive.

Another benefit of electronic medical records is that they are instantly available regardless of the location of the healthcare provider that needs them.. This is not the case with physical medical records ...
... that must be transported for review. Not only is this expensive, but it is also time consuming, which is a drawback during medical emergencies. Another problem with physical copies of medical records is that it costs a great deal of money to copy, fax, and transport them.

Amazingly, for the approximately 1 out of every 7 hospitalizations that occur, medical records are not available. This is only an estimate, but regardless patients who are hospitalized need the attending medical professionals to have access to their medical records. In many cases, lab tests are repeated as a result of not having the results at the point of care. This increases health care costs as well as the time necessary to treat the patient. Electronic medical records increase efficiency, save money, and even save lives by allowing doctors quick insight into a patient's medical history

Another problem that occurs with physical records is illegibility. Take, for example, handwritten paper medical records from doctors who have poor handwriting. Results can be difficult to decipher and can result in medical errors. Electronic medical records promote the standardization of forms, legibility, and the reduction of errors.

Many EMR software systems are expected to be replaced over the next several years thanks to Federal stimulus money targeted for the implementation of electronic medical records systems in doctor's practices and hospitals.