Pros And Cons Of Ehrs

In today’s world, many hospitals, physicians, and organizations are using the Electronic Health Records (EHRs) instead of paper charts to record patient information. The purpose of EHRs is to document and record the patient’s overall health information such as their medical history, treatment plans, diagnosis, and medications, etc. There are advantages and disadvantages of using EHRs instead of paper records, here are a few known pros and cons for us to better understand the adoption of EHRs.
One advantage of EHRs is to make patient information available faster to the physicians and organizations which tremendously boosts the decision making process in patient care, health care management, and in health care policy. With Electronic Health Records, physicians are able to share the patient information with other providers across more than one health care organization seamlessly.
Another advantage of using EHR is to improve the quality of care with the multiple functionalities within the EHR system. Three main functions that improve the quality of care are Clinical Decision Support (CDS) tools, Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) systems, and Health Information Exchange (HIE). CDS tool systems will help providers make accurate decisions regarding patient care. Some functions of CDS …show more content…
EHR can store unlimited amount of data which will lead to overload of information, and because of that physicians find it impossible to review the whole record within a reasonable time frame, missing data and inaccuracies will lead to problematic treatment errors and will affect the patient's outcome and the cost of healthcare delivery. For example, clinicians who miss a critical detail while reviewing the EHR will impact the treatment decision, and he/she could in fact be liable for negligence because “the fact in question was likely just a few clicks away.” (Hoffman,