Disadvantages Of Electronic Charting Essay

This paper explores the advantages and disadvantages with using electronic charting. Electronic charting has several advantages. The template in the patient’s chart reminds the user to note issues in areas that might otherwise be forgotten when paper charting. Care givers are able to look back through the history of a patient’s chart which can show them a history of their progress during their stay. Depending on the system, users can sometimes look far back into a patient’s medical history. With optimal systems, charting can be quick and efficient allowing the care giver to spend more time with the patient. It can also give the nurse information needed for important teaching measures. Electronic charting comes with its share of disadvantages too. Some systems are inefficient causing the user to spend more time charting, and less with the patient. Nurses often found they were keeping paper notes to chart on when back at a computer which lead to added work and mistakes. Electronic charting software is expensive, and often is not compatible with other software. Even with great security, there is also the risk of the patient data being breached. Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Charting The first steps in creating electronic health records can be traced back to the mid 1960’s, but it was not until 1972 that there was a system for electronic medical records. Development of these …show more content…
The University of Scranton (n.d.) states, “one of the earliest data processing systems originated in the mid 1960’s and focused specifically on clinical data management” (para. 3). This was the light bulb moment where developers saw where they could implement this technology into the health care setting. It was not until years later that the first electronic medical record system (EMR) was created. It was in 1972 when the first electronic medical record system was created, but