Electronic Medical Records
By: Alicia Hull
Introduction
Electronic Medical Records are worth all the dollars it costs because it has the potential to save lives, information can be completely private, but also can share information when need be, and records are more safe than in file cabinets.
Saving Lives
One of the amazing things about medical records being on the computer is that there is a system that sends an alert to the doctor when the patient’s records are showing symptoms that could be the cause of a deadly disease or sickness. Sometimes doctors overlook certain symptoms without even thinking about a serious disease. In San Francisco, they were having a serious problem with sepsis. The doctor set up a trigger tool that would alert the doctor when any patient showed any symptom of sepsis. That means it he ever overlooked any symptoms, the computer would show him.
Transferring Data is a Flash
Also, if a patient goes to the hospital, their regular doctor would get a notification that they were there from their computer. The doctor can then know why their patient was there. The information can be easily transferred, but also can be really protected when need be. Say that the patient needs their medical records for the hospital. The doctor can easily transfer it to the hospital!
Safe Keeping
When medical records are in file cabinets almost anyone can get to them. With EMRs, the only people can look at it are the doctors. This means that the records are safer with EMRs then they would be in file cabinets which further proves my point of why EMRs are a good idea.