IT and Healthcare

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how paper records are costly, cumbersome, easily misplaced and cannot be used for any meaningful decision analysis. The paper shows how electronic medical record (EMR) systems have the potential to provide substantial benefits to physicians, clinical practices and health care organizations. The paper focuses on the EMR installation in Belleville Family Medical Clinic of University of Wisconsin and highlights the costs of setting up the system as well as the security and privacy issues. The paper concludes, however, that the effort and costs are worth it because EMR improves the quality of healthcare provided, which is the primary objective of a healthcare organization.

From the Paper:

"Information Technology plays a major role in healthcare. The use of computers and computer networks for record keeping, patient administration and diagnostic medical imaging is widespread in clinics and hospitals. Electronic Medical Record (EMR) is the electronic compilation of all patient related data. This may include identification and biographical information, insurance related details, diagnostic information, treatment planning and follow up information.
"The art and science of medicine is practiced within a very information-driven environment and most of the information in a clinical setting is based on patient records and related information (Hunt, 1995). Paper records are bulky and take up space. Filing, retrieval of files and the re-filing of paper records are very labor intensive methods with which to store patient information. Creating backups is a huge problem with paper records. Information sharing is a problem - if a record is checked out for one department another department can't access the chart."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Brookstone. A. (1999) After learning curve expect both expected and surprise benefits Family Practice, The Maclean Hunter Newspaper for Family Physicians, Vol 11, No. 7, 28
• DesRoches. C. (2008) Electronic Health Records in Ambulatory Care - A national Survey of Physicians, New England Journal of Medicine, 359, 50-60
• Gilbert. A. (2004) FDA approves injecting ID chips in Patients Retrieved November 30, 2008 from Web Site http://news.cnet.com/FDA-approves-injecting-ID-chips-in-patients/2100-1008_3-5408223.html?tag=mncol;txt
• Hartzband P. and Groopman J. (2008) Off the record - Avoid the pitfalls of going electronic, New England Journal of Medicine, 358, 1656-1658
• Hunt . D (1995) Effects of computer-based clinical decision support systems on physician performance and patient outcomes: a systematic review. JAMA. 1998;280:1339-1346.

More papers on IT and Healthcare:

• Research Proposal # 113084 : "IT and Healthcare Performance"
• Research Paper # 115171 : "IT and Healthcare"
• Research Paper # 55840 : "Information Technology (IT) and Health Care"

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