Concerns About Electronic Medical Records

Electronic medical record systems have changed the way doctors and clinical systems professionals enter records and access data. Electronic medical record systems consist of recording all medical and patient data on a computer instead of recording it on paper. As a result there is less paper wastage and also information can be found easily. There are some issues or concerns regarding the generation and management of electronic medical record systems that we will discuss today.

There are basically two categories of electronic medical record systems. The first one is the born digital record which is the image captured in electronic format and then the information is entered into a database on the computer. The second category are the records originally produced on paper or other hard copy form such as x-rays and photographs and then scanned and converted into digital form. These records are best described as digital format records as their content cannot be altered easily. The process of converting the hard copy records in digital format is very time consuming and expensive. Many records are handwritten by physicians and the scanning software might not be able to decipher the illegible handwriting.

Also the material to be scanned maybe in a number of formats, sizes and qualities which further complicates the whole conversion process. Hence it is necessary that all the documents are scanned at a high resolution so that chances of recording wrong data are minimized. Also it is necessary to ascertain the accuracy and usability of the scanned hard copies prior to disposal of the physical records, in case they have to be disposed later.

Further all electronic data are subject to the need of periodic conversion and migration in different formats to ensure that the formats captured are accessible when they are required. Those responsible for managing the whole electronic medical record system should ensure regularly that hardware and the software handling all the data is functioning as required. Data should not be accessible to any other people than those authorized to access it.