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What are Electronic Medical Records?

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Electronic medical records are computerized charts that contain a complete record of a patient’s health. Under the umbrella of electronic medical records are many different “modules” of software that coordinate together. These include lab testing and results, x-rays and other types of medical imaging, drug prescriptions and refills, faxes, communication verification among the patient’s team of physicians, billing and appointment scheduling, to name a few. Most systems are for the use of the physician and medical staff only. However, a growing trend in the field of electronic medical records is the availability of an individual’s medical records online. For example, a man could access on his own records from his house, and check the results of his recent cholesterol tests or request a drug refill, for example, by getting online, going to a specific site and logging on using a secure password. There are also medical record web sites that are created by individuals and not medical personnel. Such sites are designed for the patient to record his own personal information, especially for the event of an emergency or a hospitalization out of town. This would be extremely helpful, for example, if someone with diabetes needed medical care while on vacation on the other side of the globe. Nevertheless, electronic medical records used in medical clinics and hospitals usually operate on an in-house server but require a web based server to access the information. With an in-house server, there are back-up mechanisms, usually every fifteen minutes, at the end of the day and at the end of the month. Tapes of the data are usually kept at a secure, off-site location. These back-up mechanisms keep information from being lost because computerized systems are bound to shut down—even temporarily—now and then.



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