Question

Imagine you are working at a doctor's office. You are approached by the office manager, who asks you to develop an effective way of storing patient information. Write a 350- to 700-word summary to your office manager informing her of the advantages of using electronic health records (EHRs) to store patient information. Be clear and concise, use complete sentences, and use examples to support your responses. Include the following in your response: Discuss the functions and advantages of using EHRs. Discuss three to four forms used to keep patient information in EHRs. What is the purpose of each form? Cite any outside sources. For additional information on how to properly cite your sources, log on to the Reference and Citation Generator in the Center for Writing Excellence.

Answer 1

Functions of EHR are:
• Maintain patient demographic data
• Identity a patient record
• Manage diagnosis lists
• Manage patient history
• Manage medication lists
• Maintain clinical documents and notes
• Manage guidelines, plans and protocols
• Record patient specific instructions
• Order diagnostic tests
• Manage results
• Manage consents
• Maintain records of drug interactions
• Patient specific dosing and warnings
• Pharmacy communication
• Provider and patient communication
Advantages of EHR are:
• No bulky paper records to store
• Easy access to clinical data
• Maintain clinical workflows
• Few medical errors
• Improved patient safety
• Analyse patient data
• Interact with hospitals, clinics, laboratories and pharmacies.
Forms to keep patient information in EHR are:
• Avoid medication conflicts: There a need to keep an eye on all medical practices to avoid potential errors in drugs prescriptions and avoiding conflicts with contraindicated drugs. Food items can also contradict the action of medication. To avoid these errors EHR is used to account all the medicines the patient takes.
• Timely reminders: Many people need to help to remind them their doctor appointment and other events regarding their health and treatment. The EHR system help to make these reminders such as vaccination or appointments with the physicians. The reminders are sent through voice messages or text messages.
• Identity theft: Medical professionals are not only responsible for the health of the patient but also the safety and security of their private information.