1. Privacy Concerns of Electronic Medical Records
Cassie Lantz
James Madison University
Nursing 460
Spring 2013

3. Introduction Technology is everywhere and constantly evolving.
The healthcare field is not immune to this evolution
Computers in the field have paved the way for electronic medical records.
Electronic medical records (EMR) pose both advantages and disadvantages to patients and providers.

4. Benefits of EMR Cost efficiency
Decreased cost of storage, transmission, and
copying
Convenience
Reduces need to transfer records in case of multiple providers or referrals to specialists.
Decrease in repetition of tests or procedures where results may previously have been inaccessible
Standardization of abbreviations, legibility, and increased accuracy of documentation.

5. Disadvantages of EMR Computer system failure
Lack of “human touch” of nursing (focusing on computer instead of patient)
Privacy Concerns
Concerns of who may view records, and privacy during transmission of protected information
Patients may fear disclosing past history such as mental health or substance abuse treatment for fear of provider bias

6. In regards to privacy, electronic records have the advantage that user access is limited to those with a user name and secure password.
As nurses, we need to assure that access to records is limited and that patient consent is obtained prior to disclosure of records.

7. HIPPA requires that institutions maintain a record of who has accessed a patient record.
With paper records, it is not always possible to keep track of who has viewed records.

8. How Electronic Records Can Help Patients
For epidemiological purposes, patient data can be tracked for trends
When used for this purpose,data needs to be encrypted, excluded, or transformed so identifying information is removed

9. Electronic records can benefit nurses at the bedside
For history-taking in patients with cognitive impairment
For patients with multiple health problems/medications to keep track of
Example: I once had a long term care patient with a wire observed protruding from a cardiac surgical scar. The physician became irate because I could not tell him the date of patient’s surgery—but we had no records to give us this information, and the patient was unable to give history due to dementia.

10. As healthcare professionals, we need to assure that electronic records do not take the place of careful history taking and updating
Practice example—When I was hospitalized recently, both my H&P and cardiology consult had passages that were duplicate almost word for word. Coincidence?

11. Final Thoughts
The benefits of electronic medical records outweigh then benefits as access can be tracked, which is not always possible with paper records.
Maintaining privacy of these records needs to be top priority.
Health care professionals need to assure that electronic records do not take the place of careful history taking or hands on care.