Ask almost any doctor today about the one thing that has improved their effectiveness in treating patients in recent years and they are likely to mention the advent of electronic medical records or EMRs. Computerized patient records have completely replaced handwritten records in countless hospitals, clinics, and even private practices. The use of EMR software offers a number of advantages to those facilities that make the conversion
The long standing joke about it being impossible to decipher the handwriting of any doctor will soon be a thing of the past. When all medical charts, prescription orders, and lab forms are entered and transmitted electronically, there’s very little chance of a clerical error or misreading of handwriting leading to malpractice . The number of errors in medication orders can be virtually eliminated as the software can be programmed to catch harmful drug interactions or incorrect dosages that could be fatal.
Efficiency will also increase, though this may be offset in the beginning as doctors and other medical professionals learn to use the new systems. Eventually the time saved in locating, copying, and transferring medical records between departments in a hospital or between lab and doctors office will add up. As older medical records are entered into the electronic system, the amount of physical space required to store records will shrink significantly. Costs associated with copying and shipping records to other facilities will also pretty much disappear.