Why A Computerized Medical Record?About 50,000 to 100,000 people die annually because of wrong diagnosis in US alone according to a survey. Tracking the way of treatment along with medical history of any particular patient is a huge job is done manually. There are various catalogues and files which are maintained to keep track of all the patients handled. The various information about a diagnosis are scattered over various files. This may lead to wrong diagnosis which proves fatal ultimately. Lab results, drug data and accounts of office visits are required to be properly documented with suitable method of accessing it at the time of requirement is an essential service to be provided to the patients. How such systems can be handled? After the data being properly filed, an appropriate technology should be acquired to convert records to such a system. Each record represents a person which is unique in the database. There may be other information which may be corollary to this record, need to be simultaneously accessed while treating a patient. Arranging data records in one or several database files with unique identification (representing a separate patient) is an art which makes later pulling up of information easy. It is a tedious job to start with but it is worth the effort. Once the data is entered, there should be sufficient provision in the software that handles the database(s) to take care of each patient's privacy and security with restricted access which can only be available with registered users. The software should have provision to identify authorized access. What will be the expenses envisaged? This is an important aspect as to how costly such a project will be for the citizens. The expenses incurred will be the activities to have doctors get trained to online reference and counseling. There should be enough provision to track that a doctor has been consulted and the incentives should be instantly decided. There are several transition grants which have already been awarded to undertake such projects. The initiative involves several components which will ultimately be integrated. Other expenses include the cueing of data and the third one is generation of report. There has been reform in tax code and simplification in Social Security Reform, for the 2006 fiscal year to fund the leading-edge technology to cost-effective, efficient and productive with improved health care. How to go about it in the US? For demonstration of such packages $125 million has been approved towards uniform health information standards. The patient's medical information will be accessed by all health care workers at a centralized place rather than having scattered sources, so that every emergency can be countered. For ensuring security reasons, paper records should be stored under lock and key and placed in file cabinets with double security. The people who are logging in to the system are kept track of. Computerized Medical Records enhance the care of patients through rapid access to a patient's medical record with a provision for easy review of essential information before or during a visit. This electronic medical record system is designed for single-user and multi-user settings, which can be accessed through a personal computer or by accessing under multi-terminal system. Choosing the right medical record software is essential to get the best efficiencies. |