I stumbled upon the post “Improving Patient Care through EMRs” from the Plus91 blog by Pooja Raval who used to work for Plus91, a healthcare Technology firm developing Innovative High Quality Solutions for the Indian Healthcare Industry based in Pune. Maharashtra, India.
In her post she offers a list of reasons why Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) is a modern revolution in the field of healthcare with all its numerous benefits to doctors that eventually can improve patient care. She listed twelve good reasons. I thought her post was pretty interesting and decided to expand on it, so it would seem a little more comprehensive. So here I have reproduced her thoughts, and expanded on her post what I think from my literature search are the extra EMR benefits.
Now I have seventeen (17) reasons!
This list (as below) has no particular order of importance, nonetheless I have retained her order in writing the 12 reasons and added on the five (5) more reasons. Click on any thumbnail image to view the presentation in the same tab of your current browser window, press Esc key to continue reading the article).
I am sure Health Information Management (HIM) / Medical Records (MR) practitioners reading this post working in an EMR workplace, will know if these 17 reasons hold water. If these reasons justify a shift to EMRs, then HIM/MR practitioners at non-EMR workplaces who still practice on paper-based medical records could view these reasons as a reason to propose a planned cut back on paper-based medical records quickly and make the swift transition to EMRs.
However, I am certain It is common for individuals to have anxiety about the transition as it represents a change in their very comfortable routine. Others may be simply “technophobic” and deplore the idea of spending any more time interacting with technology than they already have to.
One way to address these issues creating buy-in from doctors and staff is to highlight the ways in which the EMR implementation may save time and make life easier.
There is no process in the office that will not be affected – and hopefully improved – by the EMR. Communicating this in a way that emphasises the positive aspects of the change, while carefully addressing employee fears and concerns, can build excitement for the transition and ultimately ensure its success.
References :
Carolyn, KS & Laura LSO, ‘Usability: Patient–Physician Interactions and the Electronic Medical Record’, in J Stephan & MG Frank (eds) 2012, Information and Communication Technologies in Healthcare, Boca Raton, FL, USA, pp. 123-144
Neil, SS (ed.) 2011, Electronic Medical Records A Practical Guide for Primary Care, Humana Press, New York, USA
Pooja, R 2011, Improving Patient Care Through EMRs, viewed 22 August 2012, <http://technology4doctors.blogspot.com/2011/03/improving-patient-care-through-emrs.html>
Prathibha, V (ed.) 2010, Medical quality management : theory and practice, 2nd edn, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Sudbury, MA, USA
