EMR Is Better than Paper Charts

This issue could be debated extensively and so that is why I decided to post a few ideas on why an EMR system is more secure and more reliable and just downright better than those paper charts. Really I hope that it is somewhat of a pros and cons and could expand into all sorts of areas. We could also talk for hours about implementing an EMR and the difficulties of EMR in that respect, but putting that aside I want to just look at why EMR is better than a paper chart. I’m starting this list by taking these points from this webpage.

-Entire chart gets passed to multiple doctors, nurses, techs, therapists, dietitians, etc.
This could also be the case with an electronic record, but an electronic mark would be left by each person that viewed and more importantly changed the record.
-Lost charts destroyed in a natural disaster(ie. Katrina)
Still possible with an EMR, but not with a good off site backup. Also, how hard is it to carry a DVD with you as opposed to a room full of paper charts.
-Paper Charts spread disease
A keyboard could also carry similar diseases, but a keyboard could easily be wiped down with alcohol. Paper charts can’t be cleaned or sanitized in any way.

This is just a start. Look for more posts to come on the pros and cons. I think this might turn into a full fledge page of it’s own.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

   

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