Electronic Health Record (EHR): Literature Review
Changes pertaining to EHR in the health care industry affect an organization: Current developments pertaining to EHR include enabling patients to access personal information relative to their plan of care . There were expected positive benefits from patient accessible electronic health records (PAEHR); yet the study apparently generated varied results. The findings revealed that “patients believe that record access increases their perception of control; however, outcome measures thought to create psychological concerns (such as patient anxiety as a result of seeing their medical record) are still unanswered” . Moreover, in another study, the usability of EHRs were evaluated and problems relative to long training time, as well as loss of productivity were reported . Despite the disadvantages, EHRs were noted to have the potentials of minimizing healthcare costs, increased collaboration among health care practitioners, as well as providing better quality of patient care through convenient and easy access to patients’ records with greater accuracy.
Internal factors affect EHR in health care organizations: From the studies, it was evident that the internal factors that affect effective application of HER in various health care organizations include the following: the easy of navigating through the system, tailoring the HER to the distinct needs of the health care organization, training of health practitioners, and provision of access to patients, among others . In addition, some essential drawbacks were reported as follows: “security, privacy, and confidentiality concerns. Health care practitioners (HCPs) also appear to be divided in terms of whether using a PAEHR reduces their workload” . As such, some recommendations in addressing these factors were contended to increase continued usability of EHRs in contemporary health care settings.
References
Jilka, S., Callahan, R., Sevdalis, N., Mayer, E., & Darzi, A. (2015). “Nothing About Me Without Me”: An Interpretative Review of Patient Accessible Electronic Health Records. J Med Internet Res, e161.
Smelcer, J., Miller-Jacobs, H., & Kantrovich, L. (2009). Usability of Electronic Medical. Journal of Usability Studies, Vol. 4, Issue 2, 70-84.
