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What are the drawbacks of electronic medical records?

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Security and upholding privacy laws are a big concern to many patients’ rights advocates. People get nervous when there is any type of security breach associated with the internet, whether it be in the banking or medical industry. Generally speaking, a medical professional has access via a password to anyone’s information within the system of his or her particular clinic or hospital. However, there are firewalls or other security measures that give regions of access only to those who need it. The billing department, for example, does not need to see a patient’s recent mammogram. High-level audit trails give times and dates when the charts are accessed and if any information is edited or added. So if someone is in a patient’s chart and has no business viewing the information, he or she will likely be caught. Dr. Christopher Madden, an internist in a clinic that uses electronic medical records puts it this way: “Before electronic medical records, the six thousand or so charts in our clinic were stored in a room without doors and without any means of securing the charts. Technically speaking, anyone could look in someone’s private medical information, and no one would ever know. Medical records are much safer now.” Another challenge related to electronic medical records is that the software systems available are very expensive and the process of converting from a paper system to a paperless system is not easy. Consider the sixty-something year-old physician who has never had to type in his life and initially allowed the email craze to pass right by him. That’s what happened to Dr. John McCoy. Then one day, he learned that the clinic he worked for was going to become completely computerized. It took a great deal of patience to learn the system, but in the end, he feels like it was worth it: “During my many years of medical practice, I was aware of the deficiencies associated with medical record keeping. I wanted to do better record keeping. With electronic medical records, you learn to use one program at a time. The system proves to be a wonderful way to construct your information in a clear and comprehensive way. Previously [with paper records] it was very hard to document all the information that was collected in an office visit. Now, I feel much better about myself as a physician with regards to record keeping.”

Sources:

Dr. Christopher Madden, MD: Affinity Health Group, LLC and 2004 Microsoft Finalist for Physician of the Year MS-HUG awards
Dr. John McCoy, MD, Affinity Health Group, LLC; Tifton, GA USA
www.allscripts.com
www.cerner.com
Federal Heath Information Czar pushes for electronic medical records or all, by Jonathon Rabinvitz: The Stanford Report, February 9, 2005
The Informed Patient by Laura Landro: The Dow Jones Webreprint Service; July 27,2004

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