“I'm sorry if I have asked you these questions before...we just got a new electronic medical record system and we have to update everything...hold on, I need to find the right box to click...”
Have you had a healthcare provider offer you this type of apology recently? The implementation of Electronic Medical or Health Records, known as EMRs or EHRs was spurred by President Bush’s initiative in 2004 to improve the nation’s healthcare information technology and became a key feature of the Affordable Care Act that aimed to reduce paperwork and administrative burdens, cut costs, reduce medical errors and most importantly, improve the quality of care.
Electronic Health Records are helping caregivers reach this goal. A 2016 article in The Journal of Patient Safety reported patients exposed to EHRs were less likely to experience adverse events, such as hospital-acquired infections or adverse drug reactions.
Despite the learning curve, most are grateful for the systems once they know their way around them. For example, parents can now pull up their child's vaccination record on their phone rather than having to go to the doctor’s office..
And, EMRs provide the power of data. When high levels of lead were reported in the drinking water of Flint, Michigan, pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha pulled results of blood tests from 2013 and a similar patient pool from 2015. She found that twice as many children in the 2015 group had elevated lead levels in their blood . She stated, “If we did not have EMRs, if we were still on paper, it would have taken forever to get these results.” Enabling doctors to reveal important public health information is definitely worth the EMR investment.
Resources:
http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/facts-and-features/key-features-of-aca-by-year/index.html
http://medcitynews.com/2016/02/epic-flint-water/?rf=1
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26854418
http://m.healthcareitnews.com/news/president-bush-continues-ehr-push-sets-national-goals
