A medical or health record is a documentation of a patient’s medical history and care. A medical record is an extremely private and personal record, and there are many issues about how these records should be kept and disposed of. Traditionally, health care providers in folders store medical records in a filing system, but electronic medical records are becoming more popular throughout many different doctors offices and hospitals.

The purpose of a medical record is to offer health care providers previous medical conditions and procedures that have been done on each patient. Medical records give health care providers the information they need in order to determine the best plan for each patient, along with protection against any legal interest for both the physician and patient. Medical records also help to educate medical students and residents, as well as provide data for medical research. Patient medical records allow patients to share their medical records with various providers and health care locations, which makes it possible for each physician to determine the best type of care for each patient.

Because medical records are extremely important to a patients care, it is important that they are kept in a safe location that can be located easily. Electronic medical records, which is also referred to as EMRs, allow physicians to keep medical records in digital format, which does not build up clutter but allows the records to be accessed when needed. Because this is a new concept, transferring old records to a digital format is sometimes completed. The digital scanning process, which transforms old records into electronic records, is a very time-consuming process that is also very expensive. Also, some of the information on paper records is sometimes not legible, since it has been written by a number of different physicians over a number of different years in some cases.

When medical records are transformed into electronic medical records, it is important that the paper documents are destroyed in a correct manner. Because medical records are extremely personal and private, they must not be left for anyone to get a hold of. Most physicians prefer to leave old records in the paper format, since the majority of the time the digital formats are not always usable. Electronic medical records work best for patients who are starting a new record, since it doesn’t require to be transformed into a digital format.

Limitations in technology and software have made it hard for many physicians to adopt the idea of using electronic medical records. The software can be somewhat expensive, and most EMR systems were using older programming software. EMR companies are now creating programs using more up-to-date software, such as Microsoft, which has made it much easier for medical offices and hospitals to start recording medical information in a digital format. By using electronic medical records rather than the older style on paper, physicians will be able to have direct access to their patients records without having to sort through filing cabinets or closets. Electronic medical records can also protect records from being lost, due to fires, flood, or other natural occurrences. Because backup files are kept for each record, using electronic medical records will make it much easier to keep health records without having to worry about them getting lost or destroyed.

[ Last edited by  xafhl at 11-1-2008 10:55 ]