Electronic Medical Records

Electronic Medical Records
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Electronic Medical Records
The use of digital equipment has increased in all areas in contemporary times. Virtually all forms of paper documents are being replaced by electronic models. For example, the banking industry is within the brink of eliminating paperwork from banking. The medical field is not far behind; there are propositions to replace the existing paper based storage of medical data by electronic means (Jacques, 2010). In fact, the use of electronic medical storage is already a reality. Despite the limitations of EMR (electronic medical records), its potential advantages out weights the limitations.
Advantages
Efficiency
According to Ruffner, in the future, medical charts will be replaced with electronic health records (Ruffner et al., 2010). He suggests the move makes provision of health care more efficient that the current practice where paper charts are used. The EMR system is expected to ease transmission of medical records to the local database where it is only accessible by authorized personnel. For example, nurses often need to go after doctors to read the paper charts. However, with the new system, they can access this information from their stations, thus making their work more streamlined. In addition, the ability of doctors to communicate with more urgency where needed increases the efficiency of health care delivery to patients as well as workers. Changes are updated instantly, thus increasing the efficiency of operations (Jacques, 2010).
Creating a platform sharing of medical data
There are propositions for creation of a platform that supports sharing of medical data among practitioners. The proposed platform is expected to ease care for patients where they choose to visit different hospitals; the new doctors are able to access the files. Sharing medical data is a sensitive issue in itself because it reduces the element of privacy in health care. However, its value in improving the value of care cannot be disputed. Therefore, the creation of a platform that enables sharing of medical data should be viewed as a potential advantage of EMR.
Ease of storage
Storage of electronic files is much easier compared to paper files. For example, hard drives are smaller compared to the conventional filing systems used in medical institutions. Ease of storage also corresponds with ease of retrieval. For example, physical location of medical files sometimes takes much patient's time in hospitals. In cases of emergencies, the difference is critical to the survival of a patient. Therefore, the ease of retrieval and storage is a major benefit of using an EMR in the provision of health care.
Cost efficiency
The initial cost of installation is among the biggest initial barriers of EMR (Thede, 2010). For example, the hardware and software costs are a barrier to installation of these features. However, after installation, the EMR systems are relatively easy to maintain. They require little additional investments, and they release some additional costs of paper storage. For example, filing c...