Healthcare and Nursing - Personal Health Record Discussion
Fricton & Davies (2008) state that the personal health record (PHR) provides an innovative alternative to the problems of fragmented communication and lack of interoperability among different kinds of electronic medical record systems. PHR tends to serve as a single source of remotely accessing patient information. A study conducted by Schneider analyzes Veterans Healthcare Administration and describes its role in development of an integrated health record by enhancing patient safety and introduction of informed health care options for the users. My HealtheVet won the first place in the 2009 Medical records Institute’s “Toward anElectronic patient Record” competition (Schneider, 2010). It is determined to provide for the needs of the veterans and introduce enhancements, namely secured messaging, appointment reminders, and certain laboratory postings in the future.
Computerization and digitalization of information has established a vital role in every discipline of humanity over the last decade. Introduction of the electronic patient health records (EHR) have opened a new area of study which encompasses numerous benefits and drawbacks. Menachemi & Collum (2011) acknowledge that the potential benefits of EHRs include clinical outcomes, such as improved quality of care provided, and reduction in the medical errors, and organizational and societal outcomes. Financial and operational gains are proven examples of organizational outcomes; societal outcomes constitute the likes of improved ability to conduct research, reduced costs, and improved public health (Menachemi & Collum). The drawbacks of EHRs comprise of potentially perceived privacy concerns among the patient population, upfront acquisition costs, ongoing maintenance costs, and disruption in the workflow contributing to decline in productivity as a result of learning a new system. Despite the possible perks of using an EHR, any given professional practice needs to consider the drawbacks, as it may not be financially viable to sustain the facility in a short term frame. Apart from the monetary aspect, loss of reputation is very crucial to the health care facility as it takes a long time to reach a certain level of it.
Personal health record systems contain an array of information which pertains to past and present medical history of an individual. Inclusion of health education specific to personal medical issues in the PHR would be quite beneficial for the patients. Another feature of substantial aid could be the ability to monitor one’s compliance to the recommendations made by the health care specialist. This would allow the patient to see his or her progress and make necessary amendments towards attaining wellness. Concerns about personal information are usually found on the grounds of information breaches which take place from time or the other. These are mostly related to malpractice by health care personnel and must be addressed through stringent action against the culprits. PHRs are a valuable tool in the current age of technology. These a strong need to integrate the society into using them. Each and every individual should be motivated to be engaged …
