Essay on Electronic Health Records

Electronic Health Records

“Electronic Health Records,” by Nfor Anyi, Tatthep Chorrojeprasert, Carmen Comacho, Relyea Harris, and Kate Schaul, investigates the efficiency and usefulness of adopting EHR as the primary way of storing and retrieving patient information at health facilities. The authors intend to highlight the many effects of EHR on health care and evidence-based practice, as well as how the data may be used to ensure patient safety and better health care delivery to patients (Ozair et al., 2015).

Importance of EHR in Hospitals

Significantly, the writers clarify the goal of their discussion in the introduction by describing the rationale for the use of EHR in hospitals. Through the article, it can be noted that patient safety is improved through the EHR in a way that the patient records concerning diagnosis, bed alarms, among others can be monitored electronically which reduces the possibility of redundancy. Furthermore, the authors are objective in discussing the current application of the EHR in hospitals such that the reader can establish the importance of having the information stored and accessed electronically (Why adopt EHRs, 2014). It can also be noted that the authors have cited pertinent literature that adds to the bulk of the significant data that is used to conclude the efficacy, ethical considerations and the possible challenges of EHR. However, the authors have underemphasized the possibility for patient privacy breach through hacking, especially under the current cyber-attack era in which the security of the data can be breached by intruders (Palma, 2017). Thus, it can be recommended that further research is conducted to analyze the extent to which the security of EHR can be ensured to prevent data breaches.

Conclusions and Unanswered Questions

Conclusively, the conclusions drawn by the authors regarding the presented statistics are significant to the patient safety and quality of service delivery. Among the questions that remain unanswered are: is the privacy of the patient information ensured? Does EHR support continuous nursing development?

References

Ozair, F. F., Jamshed, N., Sharma, A., & Aggarwal, P. (2015). Ethical issues in electronic health records: a general overview. Perspectives in clinical research, 6(2), 73.

Palma, G. (2017). Electronic Health Records: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Beckershospitalreview.com. Retrieved 21 August 2017, from http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/electronic- health-records-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly.html

Why adopt EHRs. (2014). Healthit.gov. Retrieved 21 August 2017, from https://www.healthit.gov/providers-professionals/why-adopt-ehrs