What is EMR and Why is it Going Extinct?

Traditionally, keeping track of patient’s health care was archaic, yet simple. The doctor analyzed the patient with his own eyes and recorded all of the details with his own hand. This process was time consuming but it allowed doctors to keep proper track of their patients in paper files. Whenever patients visit them again, they used to take out that file and again analyze the changes to determine whether the patient has improved or not. 

Now, this traditional tracking is replaced with Electronic Medical Record (EMR) where the patient’s data is recorded digitally in a software. There are built-in templates which allow doctors and receptionists to record the patient’s data paperlessly and store it easily. This digitization of patient records has transformed the hospitals’ work efficiency completely and has made them more optimized. 

However, Medical record keeping softwares provides only calculated results as compared to EHR because they lack artificial intelligence. Moreover, this softwares also costs people more money. That’s why the popularity of EMR is decreasing in hospitals and people are shifting to EHRs.

The difference between EHR and EMR is that an EMR provides a more limited perspective of a patient’s medical history, whereas an EHR provides a more comprehensive view.

Let’s see briefly what EMR is and why people are moving away from it now?

What is EMR?

EMR is Electronic Medical Records of patients. These records serve as e-chart of patients in hospitals and healthcare centers. The healthcare experts use this medical history to track patient’s data and determine when is the time for patient recheck-up, which medications need to be changed after a particular time and optimize the patient health care cycle in hospitals. 

Why is EMR getting Extinct?

When EMR was first introduced in hospitals, they gained popularity. Almost every health care center adopted this technology to streamline their patient’s check up and other tracking tasks. Later on, when patients fail to get their desired treatment as these softwares were not keeping most personalized tracking of patients health, the popularity of these EMR decreases. Hospitals started to step back from EMR’s which started its extinction. Here we have discussed in detail what factors cause EMR to get extinct.

• Increased Start-up Cost

Previously, patient information was kept in simple files and on paper. With EMRs, software must be purchased, and a professional IT team must be hired to operate these complex softwares. That’s why hospital owners have to pay more to these IT teams to train their staff so they may learn how to operate the software.

Patients must pay more as a result of the increased costs, which drives them to other medical facilities. As a result, these EMRs may have an impact on your healthcare business. Many businesses are removing EMRs due to the disadvantage of increased cost.

• Not Appropriate Records Of Patients

The key factor determining a hospital’s credibility is how well it treats its patients. EMR in hospitals necessitates constant data entry into software. There is a possibility that the patient has entered a transitional state and his old health records have not yet been updated in the software. The patient may not receive appropriate care as a result of the delay resulting in the decline of  EMRs in hospitals.

•  Disturbing Health Experts’ Concentration

When patients go to the doctor for a checkup, they have a time limit. Because most doctors and other health professionals are unfamiliar with data entry and other IT requests, they are easily diverted from patient examinations. Although many hospitals have assigned a personal IT expert to each doctor, this service is not available in every hospital. As a result, many hospitals are now opting to return to traditional patient record monitoring or find another useful method in place of EMR.

• Down Timing

Computers and software are efficient, but if they freeze or malfunction, the entire healthcare software may also freeze. If there is a power outage or your software has been corrupted with a virus, all of your data can be erased, which means no previous history records of your routine patients. This can be extremely damaging to any health-care business. As a result, hospitals must always keep a backup of their patients’ records. The only way to accomplish this is to maintain a physical record, which EMR cannot provide.

• No Coordination In Health Workers

There is no single system for electronic medical records. The only way to streamline patient care is to use one system since multiple systems might not interact with each other. If the hospital uses a different EMR system than your general practitioner, health records may be unavailable to the hospital or vice versa. 

No matter Electronic medical records may reduce office paperwork, but the lack of coordination among multiple treating physicians, pharmacies, and allied health workers is a serious issue. Due to this issue, EMRs are getting extinct from various health care centers. 

• Security Risks

Some patients are concerned about the security and confidentiality of their electronic medical records. Despite security precautions, hackers may eventually be able to breach EMRs and release your patients’ confidential information to others. So, no matter how strong your EMR software is, it’s always at the risk of hacking. Moreover, hackers may also temper the data of a patient’s record. To avoid this situation, the use of EMRs in hospitals is getting low. 

Final Thoughts

EMRs have some benefits to optimize medical workflow but due to their drawbacks, many health experts are shifting towards EHRs. These Electronic Health Records are far more efficient than EMRs. With a wide range of capabilities required, EHRs frequently have IT support to ensure the programmes run as smoothly as possible. All of these advanced capabilities are gradually rendering EMRs outdated.