The Difficulty of Implementation of the Electronic Health Record and Research Paper

The Difficulty of Implementation of the Electronic Health Record and Ethical Dilemmas of Its Use - Research Paper Example The system can also be used for retrieval of the personal and medical history of the patient. The introduction of such systems has helped the doctors remain up to date about their patients in a much more accurate and easier way. There are many advantages of using the electronic medical record system. The data is centralized and whenever a need arises the data of the related patient can be accessed without any delay. The use of the electronic medical record system also helps when a doctor has suggested some tests for the patient. When the patient gets them done at a laboratory and there is any delay in the retrieval of the records in the printed form, the physician can access the reports through the electronic medical system and therefore there is no delay. It has been seen in many laboratories that there usually is a back log of reports to be printed and the introduction of the system can help get rid of this issue. If we compare the electronic medical record system with the paper re cording system the first major advantage that exists is the storage space. Paper filing system requires a lot of space while the electronic system has no issue (KUTNEY-LEE AND KELLY, 2011). Many physicians who practice privately are not so keen in using the electronic medical record system as they are of the view that as their practice is small and they already do not have a lot of patients, the system would be quite expensive for them and would not prove to be economical. There have been many studies conducted to identify whether the electronic system is effective and at the same cost effective across the whole of the medical circuit. It has been derived from all of the study that has been conducted that the electronic medical record system proves to be cost effective for only large hospitals whereas small clinics and private physicians will find it expensive and in some cases even hard on their finances. Despite many criticisms on the electronic medical record system, many big hos pitals have adopted the system and also connected with each other through a local area network. This corroboration between the hospitals will enhance the medical research that is being carried out as they can share information and data over a secure network without any fear of losing the data or the falling of data in the wrong hands. Some of the big hospitals who have many centers located in different areas use this system to the highest effectiveness as they share medical reports, medicinal data and other information over secure network. The carrying cost of files and paper work from one place to the other is reduced and the data is shared without any hassle and that too in real time. The sharing of the data is a lot easier through the Electronic medical recording system (WATKINS, HASKELL, LUNDBERG, BROKEL, WILSON AND HARDIKER, 2009). CRITICISM There are quite a lot of advantages of using the electronic medical record system but there are still some issues related to cost effectiv eness and security that has made hospital managements vary of implementing the Electronic medical recording system. The concern over security is one of the most pressing issues in the case of Electronic medical recording. The issue is a serious one as many practitioners as well as patients feel that the data is not safe as people have access to it in a much easier way as compared to the paper records (JHA, BURKE, DESROSCHES, JOSHI, KRALOVEC,