A critical insight into electronic health records

Abstract

Background/Objective: Health record is the business record of the healthcare system, documented in the normal course of its activities and used for clinical, research, administrative, and reimbursement purposes. In Nigeria, patient’s health records are mostly paper-based and are managed manually. The manual process is of course bedeviled with various challenges such as illegible handwriting, missing and misplacement of records. This conventional paper-based method has however been instrumental to the delays to diagnosis and treatment, thereby making electronic health records (EHRs) mechanism as a necessary alternative. EHRs are means to create legible and organized recordings and to access clinical information about individual patient. This paper therefore set out to discuss the concept of EHR, the potential benefits of EHR, its implementation and the major ethical issues associated with EHR. Methods/Design: This is a non-empirical review of literature. Result: Findings from this study reveal that easy access to clinical data, ability to establish and maintain effective clinical workflows, fewer medical errors, improved patient safety and stronger support for clinical decision-making among others are enormous benefits of electronic health records. Conclusion: The paper therefore recommends the adoption of electronic health records system in tertiary hospitals in Nigeria.