What are the Disadvantages of Electronic Medical Records?
Electronic medical records seem to be the current trend in health care, and you’ll find many physicians, allied health professionals, pharmacists and hospitals using some form of electronic recording of patient data. Despite the many advantages of a more uniform approach to documenting medical care and coordinating care when patients see several specialists, there are some disadvantages to electronic medical records. As patients more regularly experience doctor’s visits with electronic health records (EHRs) they may notice some of the disadvantages immediately. Other problems occur “behind the scenes,” outside of a patient’s surveillance. One of the chief disadvantages to electronic medical records is that start up costs are enormous. Not only must you buy equipment to record and store patient charts (much more expensive than paper and file cabinets), but efforts must be taken to convert all charts to electronic form. Patients may be in the transitional state, where old records haven’t
