Are the Days of Medical Charts Coming to a Close?

A medical record is a doctor’s trusty sidekick. Where would we be without medical records? Imagine having to diagnose every single patient during every single visit from the very beginning. The other alternative would be relying on the patient’s memory or yours. Both are impossible. There’s no way you can remember all the data about each of your patients. You probably won’t even be able to memorize their ages, let alone the doses of their drugs. On the other hand it would be impossible to ask a patient to remember the results of investigations and treatment plans. This is where medical records come to the rescue.

Medical records contain everything from the patient’s name, age, marital status, smoking habits, to their investigations, treatment plan, and previous diagnoses. This makes it easier for doctors to remember every little detail about a patient which enables him or her to provide patients with the optimum medical care. There would be chaos without medical records and it would have a terrible impact on patients. For the longest time doctors have relied on paper in creating medical records and there wasn’t any alternative to that. Recently, however, in the last 10 years or so an alternative has appeared: electronic records. There are two types of electronic records available and these are electronic medical records (EMRs) and electronic health records (EHRs). With the immergence of technology, paper records could become extinct as the medical world moves towards electronic ones. There are pros and cons to each method of record keeping and it may not be such an easy choice.

Let’s start by taking about paper, which is only natural since it is the original record keeper. There are plenty of pros to using paper as well as plenty of cons. For starters, it can be easier for a lot of people to use paper. This is especially true for older physicians who are not so acquainted with technology and would have a hard time with electronic software. Paper for many is easier and takes less time. Another advantage of paper is that it’s safe. When you keep your records on paper there’s no way they can be hacked. They may be stolen of course, but that’s pretty difficult to do. Plus, it would be bizarre for someone to break into a doctor’s office in order to retrieve a single person’s medical records or even a group of people. Hackers can acquire thousands of medical records from various medical facilities from the comfort of their homes. For a lot of people, reading off paper is a lot easier especially on the eye. For people who aren’t accustomed to reading things off the computer this can be a problem. That’s why they prefer to read things off paper. For them it would be hard to read a book off a tablet, but they’d have absolutely no problem reading a book they can hold in their hands.

It’s not all good for paper of course. Anyone who took notes on single papers can tell you how often they get lost and that it was a horrible experience. You won’t really be taking patient records in a notebook, but most often on papers that are then added to a binder or a dossier that is specified for the patient. A lot of the time papers may be lost. The problem here is that you wouldn’t know whether or not it was lost. If a certain investigation that was added to the file fell out, it would be impossible to know that you ordered it in the first place unless you either remember it or you have that written somewhere else. There’s also the issue of storage space. Sure having binders for a dozen patients is no problem, but what happens when you have 100 patients and more and their files keep expanding? You would simply run out of storage room. Even if you did have the storage room for it, retrieving these files could be a hassle and you may end up wasting a lot of time looking for a patients file. Of course if filing was done carelessly then files could be lost altogether. One way to avoid this would be by having a very detailed filing system to make the whole process much easier.

EMRs and EHRs are the other component of this debate. Electronic medical records are doctor specific meaning the data found in them has only been collected by the doctor who has them. For instance a patient who goes to 3 doctors would have a separate and different EMR at each physician and each doctor doesn’t have access to the record made by the other two. On the other hand EHRs are more detailed and universal. They are shared by every single healthcare provider the patient has and can even be accessed by the patient. Every time a doctor adds to a patient’s EHR that update can be seen by the patient’s other doctors as well. This makes it a lot better as it provides all the medical data related to the patient collected over years, potentially since birth.

Electronic records have lots of pros but mainly one major flaw. We said that for papers are quicker and easier to deal with for many people, and the same applies to electronic records. Newer generations are more acquainted with computers and technology so for them it can be more convenient to use a tablet or computer for record keeping. They would find it easy to maneuver and manipulate the software for record keeping and it would be a timesaver for them. Flipping through pages of records would be inconvenient to them. Through record keeping software it would also be easier to highlight the major significant points rather than having to read every single word written on a paper record to make sure that nothing is missed. With electronic records there are no issues of storage space or having trouble finding a particular record or worrying about records getting lost. Everything can be quickly and easily found on a computer or tablet and backups can be made in case something accidentally gets deleted.

The major issue with technology is that it can be hacked. Over the past two years there have been cyberattacks on hospitals in the UK and the US. Hackers blocked access to medical technology and redirected ambulances. This can create chaos and serious damage to patients especially if these records are released and all privacy is gone. A cyberattack could be very costly as well and could cost the healthcare systems major financial damage. If electronic records are to be truly utilized and become the main recordkeeping method then their safety and protection have to be optimum in order to fully protect against these malicious cyberattacks. Of course another downside to technology is that not everyone is comfortable with it and it could take a long time in order to train everyone to use the new technology and make sure that no mistakes are made.

Both methods of recordkeeping are great and have been of huge help to physicians and everyone in the healthcare system. Without them doctors would have nothing to build on and every time a patient visits would be like the first time. Paper has had a good run that lasted over a hundred years, but a new contender has announced itself with lots of perks and fancy options that can make life easier. Perhaps paper will hang on a little longer, but there’s no doubt that eventually technology will take over and all recordkeeping will be done via apps on tablets and computers. This is especially true as newer generations are more comfortable with technology and even spend their entire day relying on it.