Summary
1. The obvious advantage of electronic health records is that physicians can access a patient’s history, including surgical procedures and testing from other institutions. 2. Today, lots of patients do not just go to one hospital – they shop around. 3. If they have complex medical problems, their care may be provided by a number of different doctors concurrently.
Analysis
Unless the patients keep a very good record of their own care, primary care physicians and specialists can be in the dark as to what has been done for them medically in the past. Redundant lab and radiology tests are often the result. The source article also points out that drugs can be prescribed that have similar effects or may actually interact negatively with each other.
It is very expensive for hospitals to buy systems that provide electronic records. In addition, they do not want to facilitate patients leaving their institutions and going to others.
The drawbacks of having all data in one database is that it is harder to keep information private. Also, if there is wrong information, it may be more difficult to correct a mistake.
One can only hope that government involvement is kept to a minimum. Such regulations can mandate requirements that are completely unnecessary (only adding to the cost of the system) or that are not user friendly.
“Technical assistance is a ‘critical factor.’” Support needs to be readily available within the institutions. The end users, doctors and nurses, are not necessarily tech savvy.
