Health Information Systems and Electronic Health Records

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Over the years, healthcare facilities have pursued new approaches to enrich patient outcomes and establish efficient facilities. As a result, they have embraced modern technologies in almost every aspect of their activities. Today, data that the medical field store and access are sensitive, meaning high investments in modern technology have been necessary to guarantee efficiency and accuracy. Due to modern technologies, healthcare providers have been delivering quality services, thus, leading to a tremendous decline in mortalities. This paper reflects on major milestones of health information systems in healthcare over the past few decades, the development of electronic health records and its benefits and drawbacks, the interactions in telehealth considering patients and providers, and barriers to adopting technology and data use in healthcare and possible solutions.
Health information systems have been in existence for some decades now. These systems are beneficial as everyone, from patients to healthcare providers and public health officials, can use them. They facilitate data collection and compilation effectively and effectively in making tailored healthcare decisions. Since it was implemented, health information systems have noted some major milestone in the last decades that has been vital for fostering the image of the health industry. One of its major milestones has been the introduction of Electronic Health Records (EHR) and Electronic Medical Records (EMR). EMR is electronically maintained by a single provider consisting of medication, lab results, demographic data, and billing and insurance information, while EHR is electronically maintained by several providers and includes more health information, test outcomes, and treatments (Haan & Main, 2022). EMRs and EHRs have been essential for providers and patients, enabling them to reach treatment decisions and diagnoses faster.
Practice Management Software has also been a major milestone in healthcare information systems in recent years. It is integral in aiding providers manage their daily roles, like billing and scheduling, while practitioners from small practices to hospitals can use it to automate numerous administration jobs. On the other hand, Master Patient Index (MPI) has been another integral milestone of healthcare information systems. An MPI links different patient records across databases. They have been critical in reducing duplicating patient records and inaccurate patient data, which may cause patients to claim denials. Furthermore, Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) or telehealth or telemedicine is another major milestone. Telehealth aims to provide better health care by reducing disparities and preserving medical expenses (Mechanic et al., 2022). Overall, healthcare information systems have been at the forefront of transforming the healthcare industry to another level.
Initial efforts for EHR development started in the 1960s and 70s after academic medical centers established their systems. In the early 1980s, leaders noticed how this technology could benefit the industry and started developing organizations to address the wider concerns which would foster the wider use of electronic medical information. Since the 1980s, organizations have put more effort into ensuring EHR becomes more usable. During the early 2000s, web-based software began developing; the need to develop EMR systems via remotely-hosted systems became clear. Accessing data remotely or storing it on a remote system made electronic health records more appealing and affordable for providers to adopt into their practice. By 2018, studies show that approximately all healthcare systems in the United States have shifted to EHRs (Choi et al., 2018). This shows that the EHRs have been embraced due to their possibility of transforming the healthcare sector.
The EHR systems have taken the healthcare industry to greater levels than traditional paper versions of keeping records. For instance, paper forms were prone to tampering in a way that can be hard to notice as a person can eliminate papers from a report. However, electronic systems are secured by encryption and robust login and password systems, making it complex for unauthorized persons to adjust patients' data. Moreover, accessibility to electronic health records may be restricted to authorized users. EHRs provide more security, unlike traditional paper files, as papers are vulnerable to being misplaced or lost, leading to severe complications for the patients in the line. EHRs, however, are better with encryption which converts files and information into an unreadable format where the files cannot be reverted without a decrypting password. Therefore, EHRs have been far better than the traditional paper format in protecting data and files.
Electronic health records have benefited healthcare in different ways based on clinical, organizational, and societal outcomes. EHRs assist in decreasing medication or medical errors. A study found that a 55% decline in severe medication errors has been achieved by EHRs systems (Menachemi & Collum, 2011). EHRs also help healthcare facilities perform better than their counterpart that do not. Research proved this by showing that Florida healthcare facilities that had invested greatly in EHRs noticed more desirable rates on several used quality indicators (Menachemi & Collum, 2011). Also, numerous avoided costs linked with EHRs result from this technology's efficiencies. Surged utilization of tests, decreased staff resources dedicated to patient management, reduced transcription costs, and lessened costs associated with chart pulls are some of the averted costs due to EHRs (Menachemi & Collum, 2011). Furthermore, EHRs are associated with enhanced capability to carry out research. Facilities that can store patient information electronically increase the accessibility and availability of the data leading to more quantitative analyses to evaluate evidence-based practices more simply.
Conversely, EHRs are associated with detriments that can harm healthcare. For instance, financial constraints such as adoption and implementation costs and maintenance c...