EHR PROPOSAL SUMMARY

Functions and Advantages of Electronic Health Records
Candidate’s Name
Institution’s Name
Functions and Advantages of Using Electronic Health Records (EHRs)
EHRs have several functions and advantages to the doctors. Among these functions and advantages include;
Functions
They enhance information accessibility: through the EHRs, the patients’ medical data are accessible when and at any place required (Bell & Thornton, 2011). For example, the doctor shall access these data at anytime he requires and enable him to make informed judgments about patient’s healthcare.
They are the basis for medical quality advancements: Dependable access to comprehensive patient data is vital for secure as well as efficient care provision (Bell & Thornton, 2011). EHRs put correct and detailed data concerning patient’s healthcare as well as health record at the doctor’s fingertips. Therefore, through EHRs, the doctor shall provide the finest possible treatment. This results in an enhanced patient encounter and good patient treatment results. For example, some doctors explain that they use data from the EHRs to follow-up patient treatment and ease quality enhancement dialogues at clinical appointments.
They support caregiver decision-making: EHRs assist the caregivers in making competent and informed judgments regarding patient treatment since they enhance aggregation, analysis, as well as transmission of patient data.
Advantages
EHRs leads to better patient treatment: They might enhance the quality of health treatment and make treatment very convenient for the doctor as well as the patients (Kern et al.

, 2013). It attains these by; allowing fast retrieval of patients’ data from faraway places for very organized, effective treatment and improving decision-making support and medical warnings. They also enable immediate quality reporting, comprehensive record keeping which eases accurate billing and they allow secure and very dependable prescribing.
Secondly, they foster patient involvement in medical treatment: doctors together with patients who have access to EHRs might cooperate in making informed judgments about treatment (Bell & Thornton, 2011). EHRs establish avenues for interaction between doctors and patients. For example, a physician may administer appointment diaries electronically as well as converse with patients through e-mails.
Thirdly, EHRs enhances diagnostics and patient treatment results: If a medical practitioner has comprehensive and correct data, the patients get good healthcare (Goldberg et al., 2012). EHRs also enhance the doctor’s capacity to detect illnesses as well as decrease medical mistakes; thus, enhancing patient treatment results. For example, in a study by Jamoom et al. (2012) on doctors who use EHR, it was discovered that EHR makes patient data promptly accessible during treatment and results in good medical advantages such as good patient treatment.
Lastly, EHRs improve treatment management: They reduce disintegration of treatment through enhancing treatment management (Goldberg et al., 2012). EHRs possess the capability of combining, systematizing patient data as well as facilitating their instant sharing between all certified doctors concerned with a patient’s treatment. For example, through EHR a signal may be utilized to inform doctors if a patient has visited a health facility; thus, enabling the doctors to follow up to know the reason for the visit and the outcome.
Forms Used To Keep Patient Information in EHRs
Presently, organizations possess many technological layouts to select from when using electronic forms in taking and keeping medical data. The following forms may be utilized;
The standard office applications forms
These forms include the basic office applications, for example, Ms Word and worksheet programs. They are used to make electronic forms during temporary processes of taking patient data (Fluckinger, 2010). Their uses are restricted to users with the applications.
HTML forms
HTML is utilized in data-entry documents, particularly in website browsers. They are used for making forms for online use (Fluckinger, 2010). They provide ease of online filling as well as submission.
XForms
They are utilized to process XML data, particularly within web forms. They are helpful in dealing with data during the process integration stage, but they do not have a strong presentation layer; thus, sustaining reliability from paper to electronic forms is hard (Fluckinger, 2010). They are not broadly and steadily supported in easily accessible computer programs.
PDF Forms
They are PDF files which have sheet data, logic, as well as presentation information that gives it reliability. They offer a data layer, business logic as well as it has a strong, accurate presentation layer. It has an autonomous format that can be supported in various operating systems (Fluckinger, 2010). They may be utilized for archiving, especially if the PDF archival standard is used.
References
Bell, B., & Thornton, K. (2011). From promise to reality: achieving the value of an EHR: realizing the benefits of an EHR requires specific steps to establish goals, involve physicians and other key stakeholders, improve processes, and manage organizational change. Healthcare Financial Management, 65(2), 51-57. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?output=instlink&q=info:2FWRpbSMxMsJ:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&scillfp=13352986088038826968&oi=lle
Fluckinger, D. (2010). Moving paper EHR processes to electronic medical forms. http://searchhealthit.techtarget.com/tip/Moving-paper-EHR-processes-to-electronic-medical-forms
Goldberg, D.G, Kuzel, A.J., Feng, L.B., DeShazo, J.P., & Love, L.E (2012). EHRs in Primary Care Practices: Benefits, Challenges, and Successful Strategies. The American Journal of Managed Care, 18(2), e48-e54.
Jamoom, E., Patel, V., King, J., & Furukawa, M. (2012, August). National perceptions of EHR adoption: Barriers, impacts, and federal policies. In National conference on health statistics.
Kern, L. M., Barrón, Y., Dhopeshwarkar, R. V., Edwards, A., Kaushal, R., & with the HITEC Investigators. (2013). Electronic health records and ambulatory quality of care. Journal of general internal medicine, 28(4), 496-503. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?output=instlink&q=info:7rpp6jyHDpEJ:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&scillfp=6478645994761350914&oi=lle