Welcome to EMR and HIPAA

When I was replying to a comment made on my previous post, I came up with an analogy that was so good that I decided to make it into a post.

Here’s what some people might say about an EMR:

An EMR isn’t nearly as good as a paper chart, because I can’t draw my cute male and female symbols. (*This was an actual quote from someone I worked with)

Hearing something like the above made me think of this analogous statement:

A car isn’t as good as a horse, because a horse can go into tight places.

Of course we could come up with a number of reasons why a paper chart is better than an EMR. However, the same could be said about why having a horse was better than having a car. However, no one is wishing that we were riding horses around instead of cars.

There are pros and cons to everything we do, but I am certain that an EMR has more benefits than a paper chart just like cars have more benefits than horses. I don’t find people complaining about wanting to go back to the horse and buggy days. So, let’s stop wishing we were back in the paper chart days.