Electronic Medical Records (Research Paper Sample)

Electronic Medical Records
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Electronic Medical Records
Healthcare is essential for any government and healthcare institutions help in creating a healthy society that can meet its obligations and help in the development of a nation. In every institution, it is important for the people to keep records of their activities for ease of referencing. One of the ways of keeping information in healthcare facilities is through the use of Electronic Medical Records.
Electronic Medical Records are electronic record systems that portray the health-related information of an individual and which can be created, consulted, and managed by authorized medical practitioners in a health care organization (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2015). There are several records that healthcare practitioners keep about patients. The patient information contained in the records includes name, current medication, allergies, prior illnesses, prior hospitalization, and vaccination records (Iyer et al., 2006). It also includes social history such as marital status, employment, lifestyle habits such as alcohol consumption and a family history that provides information about parents and their different ailments if any (Iyer et al., 2006). This information helps to determine the possible diseases a patient might suffer from either as a recurrent of a past ailment or as a new disease. The social habits enable medical practitioners to know if the patients engage in activities that predispose them to new diseases or increase the intensity of existing ones. The information about the health information of parents can help in knowing the possibility of a genetic disease. The information about previous illness and length of hospitalization is also essential in the medical records. It can help a medical practitioner to determine whether a patient suffers from side effects or was given ineffective medication. All this information is essential for the present and future health status of a citizen.
The use of computers to support data management in healthcare facilities started in the late 1950s (Carter, 2001). Since then, there have been several designs of computers aimed at monitoring and helping in different medical-related activities. The central component of Hospital Information Systems (HIS) is an Admission, Discharge, and Transfer (ADT) system whose function is to manage patient demographic information and census (Carter, 2001). There are times when the system includes accounting and billing packages. In the recent past, hospitals have created complete Information Systems through integrating the core HIS with departmental systems (Carter, 2001). The concept of Electronic Medical Records helps medical practitioners to manage all the aspects of medical care. The initial efforts of building the Electronic Medical Records started in the 1960s from the COSTAR system that was developed in a computer science laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital (Carter, 2001). This was followed by subsequent efforts both at the Regenstrief Institute in Indiana and Duke University leading to EMR systems that can store a high quantity of information (Carter, 2001). Today, there are several companies offering the EMR system to various health care institutions. Before the EMR, health institutions documented patient information on paper. The Electronic Medical Records is an electronic and machine-readable version of the information contained in paper-based records (Carter, 2001). The records comprise both unstructured and structured patient information from dissimilar document imaging and computerized ancillary systems (Carter, 2001).
An EMR can either be a virtual system that integrates various existing systems, or it can be a detached product. It has two levels of integration that are data and presentation levels (Carter, 2001). The presentation level allows users to view information from all the integrated systems on a common interface. At this level, a patient can use an interface to access information such as laboratory work and medication that a patient orders. Despite the importance of such a system, it does not allow users to use it for other functions rather than data retrieval. Its main advantage is the ability to use one interface to interact with all other integrated systems. The data level integration is more desirable but much difficult to achieve (Carter, 2001). It requires the use of a consistent data labeling scheme for all system components and the presence of a mechanism that can be used to move data between different systems (Carter, 2001). In mainframe-dominant environments, data integration is rare unless a single Information System vendor connects all departmental systems (Carter, 2001). System integration is difficult when setting an integrated or single hospital delivery system, and most systems only achieve integration at the presentation level. The main disadvantage of the presentation-level integration system is that it is impossible to ask questions across all systems (Carter, 2001).
Some of the components of an Electronic Medical Record include biometrics, networking, data input technologies, and databases. Databases are the main foundation of an EMR system and are software programs that allow the users to store and retrieve information (Carter, 2001). They can store information in large blocks of images and documents or discrete items of single words. Since they hold invaluable amounts of data, there is an importance of indexes to help in retrieving information. An index is a file ordered in numeric or alphabetical manner that indicates the exact location of a data item (Carter, 2001). A database can exist on a single computer or different computers. Data input technology is concerned with the implementation of an Electronic Medical Record system. The computer keyboard is incompatible with EMR systems making it important to have other input systems such as a voice-based input and a pen (Carter, 2001). The pen-based input is a pointing device that acts as a mouse or can be used to write characters. However, its use is limited in entering large amounts of data. There is an advancement in the voice recognition technology, and there are systems that can handle speech with limited errors. Networking helps in utilizing the maximum potential of an EMR system. Local Area Networking enhances the affordability of computing by allowing build-it-as-you-need-it approach in installing and purchasing software and hardware (Carter, 2001). Internet technologies are much cheaper and more convenient in networking as compared to other resources and ways of sharing information (Carter, 2001). Wireless networks have also increased the possibility of networking. They transmit information through radio frequency transmissions and allow for mobility of users. Besides the internet, an individual can also use intranet. Biometrics helps in securing information in the EMR. The most common way of securing information in EMR systems is the use of passwords, but they can be stolen or forgotten. The use of biological markers such as iris scanning and fingerprints technology is much preferred in securing information (Car...