If you are as old as I am, you will remember going to the doctor’s office and seeing a wall of shelving with row after row of patient files. You will remember the nurse and then the doctor adding information to your patient file as your examination and treatment continued. I also remember hearing news reports of someone finding boxes of old patient files in a trash dumpster and everyone in the city worrying about identity theft.
Over the years, I have worked in various medical offices, first as a bookkeeper and later as a front office manager, and I witnessed the other side of the paper file issue. When you literally have hundreds of patient folders to file and keep organized, mistakes happen. Doctors are not pleased when they need a folder, and no one can find it because it was filed in the wrong place.
Folders become frayed; papers inside them sometimes get rearranged; more staff was required to take care of patient records. Each day’s patients meant pulling their charts (or folders), organizing a new sheet for the medical staff to use for notes and making sure everything in them was correct. In a large practice, or one where the doctor had been practicing for many years, those patient charts took up a lot of space.
Today, more and more medical practices are converting paper files to electronic medical records (EMR). The EMR systems help them in a number of ways. Some of the benefits are:
- Quick access to patients’ records. Instead of hiring medical records staff specifically to manage the paper charts, the new systems allow doctors and nurses to quickly enter the systems on the computer and bring up a patient’s file.
- When various staff members are writing in a patient’s chart, it’s easy to make mistakes. If records are on an electronic system, they are easily read without errors.
- Easy to share records with patients. When I visit my nurse practitioner, I’m given a printed out copy of the info she entered into my electronic chart. Results of lab work, as well as her findings are included.
- EMR’s are environmentally friendly. Less paper used means fewer trees destroyed.
- Patient identity safety. As long as EMR files are backed up, either using a cloud system or something else, the digital records system offers far better security than paper charts.
- Patient ability to see their own records on their own computer. Many offices now offer the option to patient’s of going into their own records from their home computer. No more wondering what the results of the last tests were.
It seems like electronic medical records are a win-win for both patient and medical office. If you have concerns or questions, ask your medical professional about the system. Ask how they back up their files, so you will feel comfortable about your privacy.
