Electronic Medical Records – Understanding Its Advantages And Disadvantages

By Author: activemds
Total Articles: 12
Comment this article

The advent of the digital age ahs revolutionized the way in which bulk data is stored for easy access. Hence it is not surprising the storage of medical records is also undergoing significant changes. Although, maintenance of electronic medical records is becoming a necessity in the modern times, one needs to be aware of both its advantages and disadvantages, on order to appreciate its value in a better manner. Given below are some common advantages and disadvantages of maintaining medical records electronically.

Advantages:

1. The use of electronic medical records is believed to cause a significant reduction in record entries caused by human negligence or mistakes.

2. The fact that electronic records are less prone to loss and damage due to various human and environmental factors as compared to the records maintained on paper is one of the major factors contributing to their growing popularity.

3. The use of medical records stored electronically not only makes the provision of medical care facilities much more efficient and quick but also brings down their cost by a significant margin.
4. ...
... The use of electronic record systems can help save numerous lives by enabling doctors to share information within real time and also by easily helping in identifying patients who are prone to critical illnesses based on their previous medical history.

Disadvantages

1. Most people feel that the use of electronic medical records will deprive the patients of their privacy as their medical records can be accessed by anyone having the right codes leaving them vulnerable to exploitation by people with vested interests.

2. It is also a common belief that using digitized medical records will take away the human touch from the medical profession as the patients will be considered no more than a series of data and records by the concerned doctors.

3. A large number of people are of the opinion that despite being purported as the perfect record keeping system, maintenance of electronic records is prone to errors and failure as it eventually depends on an alert human brain for its perfect operation.

4. People also feel that the use of electronic medical records is not safe as not only can the entire medical history of a patient be lost in case of a virus attack, but it is also easy for hackers to access a person’s medical history use the information for one’s own benefit and prosperity

Active Management is a reliable and leading medical billing company with vast experience and expertise in the field of electronic medical records keeping. For more information on the services offered by them you can logon to their website www.activemds.com