The medical health record is an integral part of the healthcare system and has evolved greatly over the years. This form of communication is necessary for keeping information about a patient’s health at the fingertips of healthcare professionals. The medical record includes everything from billing and administrative information to complete diagnoses and medications. ("What information does an electronic health record (EHR) contain? | FAQs | Providers & Professionals | HealthIT.gov," 2013). Although the current idea of the electronic health record (also known as EHR) is fairly new, the documentation of one’s medical history is not. In fact formal medical record keeping can be traced as far back as 1920, when healthcare professionals realized
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Although the idea of an EHR is relatively new and only recently became required by law, computerized medical information has existed for decades. In the 1960s computers were introduced into the medical field. These brought a better way to standardize medical history information and more ways to share this information. The computer provided an easier way for the physician to log patient care, provide the patient with their information and supply decision support based on previous patient outcomes and medical trends. Insurance companies also benefited greatly from this new trend by having better information to warrant payment of bills and possibly deny benefits. Medical research was another area of growth. Having this information standardized made it easier to gather and compare information, which lead to further advancement of the medical field as a whole. More change for the medical health record came in 1996 when congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) which require national standards for EHR’s ("Medical Records: A Brief History » Medical Coding Degree," n.d.). According to Amy Savage, a Professor at Baker College of Flint, “The health record has been officially migrating from the paper format to an electronic format since 2004…..[with] the formation of the Office of National Coordinator (ONC), and their charge was to …show more content…
It has been through numerous transformations and is continually changing the face of medicine. It has gone from a simple document used solely for the informing of patients, and now is used for medical tracking, research and even helping fight terrorism. With the roll out of an interoperable system within the next ten years, it will also be a document that saves close to one hundred thousand people a year just by offering thorough information to the correct people in a timely manner. The future of the medical record will be a fully functioning, interoperable system benefiting not only the patient, but the medical field as a
Although the idea of an EHR is relatively new and only recently became required by law, computerized medical information has existed for decades. In the 1960s computers were introduced into the medical field. These brought a better way to standardize medical history information and more ways to share this information. The computer provided an easier way for the physician to log patient care, provide the patient with their information and supply decision support based on previous patient outcomes and medical trends. Insurance companies also benefited greatly from this new trend by having better information to warrant payment of bills and possibly deny benefits. Medical research was another area of growth. Having this information standardized made it easier to gather and compare information, which lead to further advancement of the medical field as a whole. More change for the medical health record came in 1996 when congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) which require national standards for EHR’s ("Medical Records: A Brief History » Medical Coding Degree," n.d.). According to Amy Savage, a Professor at Baker College of Flint, “The health record has been officially migrating from the paper format to an electronic format since 2004…..[with] the formation of the Office of National Coordinator (ONC), and their charge was to …show more content…
It has been through numerous transformations and is continually changing the face of medicine. It has gone from a simple document used solely for the informing of patients, and now is used for medical tracking, research and even helping fight terrorism. With the roll out of an interoperable system within the next ten years, it will also be a document that saves close to one hundred thousand people a year just by offering thorough information to the correct people in a timely manner. The future of the medical record will be a fully functioning, interoperable system benefiting not only the patient, but the medical field as a