Pro/Con, concerning electronic medical records

Pro/Con of Electronic Health Records
James Wise
Class: HCA303
 
Abstract

With Change, there is always controversy and there is no exception with electronic health records. The computer age and technology leaps in information exchange the days of vast physical storage file systems and paper trails may soon be over. We will explore the positive aspects of electronic files and contrast concerns the system holds. Clearly, this will highlight the controversy and show a weighted scale in the direction we should go.

Highlighting the Positives

They are a myriad of positive areas that electronic filing impact. Let us first look at the environmental aspect. Still perhaps a decade away if all health records went electronic we would greatly reduce deforestation, giving room for replanting helping to reduce or achieve sustainability from the negative effects in the lost of our forest.

Efficiency, diagnosis and treatment written down on paper can sometimes be hard to read or can be incomplete. Having your total medical history (including all your prescribed medications, for example) can often be the key to solving a medical puzzle.

Coordination, electronic records mean doctors can communicate more easily, improving diagnosis and the quality of care. For example, your family doctor can share vital information with a specialist (or number of specialists), saving you time in the office or maybe even your life in an emergency; more so if you arrive unconscious and cannot answer important medical questions.

Empowerment, having access to important parts of your own health record when you want them will help you make vital decisions, such as treatment options, and stay informed, raise your literacy to make rational decisions with your wellness plan.

Concerns

There is only one concern but a large and complexes that has life changing negative effect. The concern is privacy; the core reason is explored in the enactment of the HIPPA laws. It was found that people with medical conditions were being discriminated in attaining a job, and or acquire a loan. This was having a negative effect on economy and was decided that no one should base these decision on a person personal health record and health record became privatize with many rules and regulations (hhs.gov 2010). The information exchange explosion is still morphing and as each new technology is introduced the game changes in new security concerns. In addition, the best medium for this exchange is the World Wide Web, which is full of predatory serious hackers trying to break codes and it has happened. Elizabeth Fernandez of the, San Francisco Chronicle asserts, information on thousands of UCSF patients was accessible on the Internet for more than three months last year, a possible violation of federal privacy regulations that might have exposed the patients to medical identity theft, The Chronicle has learned.

Government has been enacting policy in this area through Information technology Act 2000 consisted of 94 sections segregated into 13 chapters. Four schedules form part of the Act. In the 2008 version of the Act, there are 124 sections (excluding 5 sections that have been omitted from the earlier version) and 14 chapters. Schedule I and II have been replaced schedules III and IV are deleted. (Department of Information Technology 2010). As we can see, the laws are morphing as well, which increases the anxiety of privacy lost.
Conclusion

Using a simple scale, in weighing the positives to the one important negative regarding electronic health records, the positives win. The trend is rapidly moving towards this goal in major Government funding with more than $17 billion in stimulus funding, the government has been encouraging medical providers to adopt electronic medical records, “switching patient records from old paper files to sophisticated computer databases,” David Twiddy reports for The Associated Press. Are only hope is technology in addressing security breaches, grows as fast as this new way of doing business.


Reference:
HHS.gov (2010) Understanding Health Information Privacy. Retrieved on September, 5, 2010,
from http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/index.html
San Francisco Chronicles (2008) Health care practices and UCSF patient records expose.
Retrieved on September, 5, 2010, from http://breachblog.com/2008/05/07/ucsf.aspx

Department of Information Technology (2010) View the IT act 2000. Retrieved on

September, 5, 2010, from http://www.mit.gov.in/content/view-it-act-2000

Gutierrez-Folch, Anita (2009) Government Pushes for Electronic Medical Records by 2014

Retrieved on September, 5, 2010, from

http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/health/2009/October/Government-Pushes-for-Electronic-Medical-Records-by-2014-.html