Electronic Health Records Assignment

Topic: Electronic Health Records
Compare and contrast how electronic documentation with electronic health records differs from “paper-based” documentation. Describe the electronic health record system utilized in your practice setting. Have you worked with this type of electronic health record system before or not? What challenges do you as a student nurse practitioner in primary care face with regard to management of patient data with this type of electronic heath record?

SAMPLE SOLUTION

Electronic Health Records
Introduction
Judging from the standards that Medicare centers and Medicaid services (CMS) have established since 2005, hospitals and healthcare providers have demonstrated a significant use of electronic methods of keeping records and performing plenty of other services (Wasserman, 2016). The emerging trends in the world regarding technology have profoundly created a need for the adoption of electronic means of keeping health records. Documenting the data using electronic means differs from paperwork in the many ways.
Electronic Health-Records versus “Paper-Based” Documentation
Concerning accessibility, electronic documentation differs from paperwork in that it is easy to handle electronic data. Information can be located and shared conveniently and efficiently. Paper-based documentation requires the user to dig from a massive warehouse and exchange of such information needs scanning, which is a strenuous and a time-consuming task (King, Patel, Jamoom, & Furukawa, 2014). Secondly, paper records may differ from electronic documents when it comes to quality. Most paperwork records lack accuracy since some information becomes distorted and unreadable with time. Poor handwriting might make the document either impossible read or difficult to understand. Electronic documents are easy to read, understand and interpret using a universal methods known to all the staff. Another huge variation is in the capacity of storage. Unlike paper records which require ample space for storage, specialized manual task force, and their negative environmental implication, electronic methods of keeping records provide an ambient accommodation service. There is an enormous capacity for storage and safety assurance. The healthcare practitioners can…