Ever since President Bush called for the modernization of America's healthcare system, electronic medical records vendors have flooded the market. Each claiming a feature that they only have, the benefits of having such a system installed to the hospital became a confusing and frustrating time for nurses, doctor and other personnel who had to undergo training.
Although the efforts of theses software vendors are admirable, because of their want for money some sacrifices where make to the system. Suddenly problems of electronic medical records became real.
One of the problems of electronic medical records is the privacy issue. The idea of your medical records being available to anyone willing to pay or to those who are not directly concerned to your recovery is a possibility.
In February 2005, a survey conducted by the Harris National survey say that 47% of US adults believe that the privacy problems of electronic medical records outweigh the expected benefits. And the majority of the respondents - around 70% - said that sensitive personal health information might leak to other parties, like insurance firms, because of weak data security.
Aside from this, real problems of electronic medical record also include the patient. Since this is about them, the question of whether how much control is the system willing to give patients on what goes in or out of the electronic medical records. Although this kind of problems of electronic medical record problems should really be left to the doctor, human rights advocates make it difficult for the system to be completely adopted.
The threat of tampered documents loom over the nurses and doctors like a plague is presented as one of the problems of electronic medical record. Though the system promises accuracy and efficiency, people cannot help but be apprehensive when it comes to the guarantee of security.
One major flaw being criticized about the electronic medical record system is the mobility of this information. It used to be that when there were problems with the patients, their records are kept in hand by the doctor so they can analyze and make proper decisions to the person's sickness while they roam around the hospital or have lunch in the cafeteria.
The problems of electronic medical record are that, although the information is readily available to the doctor, he must now refer to the computer more than twice to keep up with the spirit of the "paperless" office. If he wanted to go outside his office, he has to make a hard copy of the progress notes.
Unless the government issues pocket computer notebooks or downloadable information through PDA (pocket digital assistants), the problems of electronic medical record keep getting bigger. The alternative to answering these problems means having to buy additional equipment (laptops or PDA) to truly make the information instantly available to the hospital staff. Unfortunately, it also means additional expense on administration and adding to the problems of electronic medical record.
The amount of control that the hospitals have over who can access the files remain as the one of the biggest problems of electronic medical record. The standardization of the records may permit other agencies to look over your confidential records to validate insurance applications or hinder the patient from getting his promotion due to medical reasons.
The hardest thing about these problems of electronic medical record is that instead of being concerned with health care, the entire process of going to the hospital will become more inhumane, cold and calculated. Who knows? Maybe the future will brings us androids to take down our medical information.
Although the efforts of theses software vendors are admirable, because of their want for money some sacrifices where make to the system. Suddenly problems of electronic medical records became real.
One of the problems of electronic medical records is the privacy issue. The idea of your medical records being available to anyone willing to pay or to those who are not directly concerned to your recovery is a possibility.
In February 2005, a survey conducted by the Harris National survey say that 47% of US adults believe that the privacy problems of electronic medical records outweigh the expected benefits. And the majority of the respondents - around 70% - said that sensitive personal health information might leak to other parties, like insurance firms, because of weak data security.
Aside from this, real problems of electronic medical record also include the patient. Since this is about them, the question of whether how much control is the system willing to give patients on what goes in or out of the electronic medical records. Although this kind of problems of electronic medical record problems should really be left to the doctor, human rights advocates make it difficult for the system to be completely adopted.
The threat of tampered documents loom over the nurses and doctors like a plague is presented as one of the problems of electronic medical record. Though the system promises accuracy and efficiency, people cannot help but be apprehensive when it comes to the guarantee of security.
One major flaw being criticized about the electronic medical record system is the mobility of this information. It used to be that when there were problems with the patients, their records are kept in hand by the doctor so they can analyze and make proper decisions to the person's sickness while they roam around the hospital or have lunch in the cafeteria.
The problems of electronic medical record are that, although the information is readily available to the doctor, he must now refer to the computer more than twice to keep up with the spirit of the "paperless" office. If he wanted to go outside his office, he has to make a hard copy of the progress notes.
Unless the government issues pocket computer notebooks or downloadable information through PDA (pocket digital assistants), the problems of electronic medical record keep getting bigger. The alternative to answering these problems means having to buy additional equipment (laptops or PDA) to truly make the information instantly available to the hospital staff. Unfortunately, it also means additional expense on administration and adding to the problems of electronic medical record.
The amount of control that the hospitals have over who can access the files remain as the one of the biggest problems of electronic medical record. The standardization of the records may permit other agencies to look over your confidential records to validate insurance applications or hinder the patient from getting his promotion due to medical reasons.
The hardest thing about these problems of electronic medical record is that instead of being concerned with health care, the entire process of going to the hospital will become more inhumane, cold and calculated. Who knows? Maybe the future will brings us androids to take down our medical information.