Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) or Electron Health Records (EHRs) are defined as longitudinal electronic records of patient health information generated by one or more encounters in a medical care setting (Menachemi et al., 2011). Included in this information are patient demographics, medical problems, medications, communications between healthcare providers, vital signs, the patients medical history, immunization records, laboratory data, and radiology reports, and more (Menachemi et al., 2011). Researchers have examined the benefits of EHRs by considering clinical, organizational, and societal outcomes, the benefits outweighing the negative. Clinical outcomes include improvements in the quality of patient care, reduction in medical errors, and system improvements in medical error measures that describe the appropriateness of care and the systems designed to help improve them. Additionally, organizational outcomes have included such items as financial and operational performance, as well as satisfaction among patients and clinicians who use EHRs (Menachemi et al., 2011). Electronic medical records were designed to help medical professionals expedite care, reduce errors, communicate between healthcare organizations where a patient may receive additional treatment therapies, reduce the need for paper charting by staff and eliminate the need for patients medical charts to be printed and carried with them to communicate care (Menachemi et al., 2011).  Ordering tests, exams, lab tests, surgeries, providing continuity of care, is all done more easily with the use of an EMR. But at what cost is the price of using an EMR?

     For the use of the EMR, some negatives do exists. Breaches of patient confidentiality, patient security, and privacy have been lost. The implementation costs of purchasing EMR software, converting paper charts to electronic records, training end-users, and maintaining network security are extremely pricey (Menachemi et al., 2011). Lawsuits of security breaches are also financially costly. A potential drawback of EHRs is the risk of patient privacy violations, which is an increasing concern for patients due to the increasing amount of health information exchanged electronically. To relieve some of these concerns, policymakers have taken measures to ensure the safety and privacy of patient data. For example, recent legislation has imposed regulations specifically relating to the electronic exchange of health information that strengthens existing Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act privacy and security policies. Altogether, the positives of the use of the EMR outweigh the negative and will most likely continue to be a convenient tool used when treating the patient in the healthcare

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 A patients medical record is a valuable resource to have in the medical field as it facilitates the ability for a patients care team to communicate on what the patients needs are, how they are responding to care, and what the patients treatment will be going forward. Since a patients medical record consists of the most current and accurate information, its important for any data implemented to be clear and accurate to ensure anyone who is reviewing a patients chart can understand and easily follow along on the progression of the patients care. If the information in a patients chart is illegible, inaccurate, or has very little information, it makes it difficult for a patients care team to effectively and safely provide care. Having a medical record presented in this way puts the health care team and medical institution in a liable position. With a risk of this magnitude and how advanced healthcare has become, healthcare has shifted to utilizing the electronic medical record system to help improve the quality and value of healthcare.

Traditionally, health care professionals documented patient information on written paper. Paper records were episode records, with a separate record for each patient visit at any healthcare facility (Potter et al., 2017, p. 357). As a result, key information such as allergies, current medications, medical history, and/or current plan of care would easily get lost, affecting patient safety. As it became a reoccurring problem, the American and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 set a goal that all medical records would change to electronic by 2014 (Potter et al., 2017, p. 357). Since 2011, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), enacted under Title XIII of ARRA, has been a big contribution in adopting the electronic record system in the United States (Potter et al., 2017, p. 357). The EMR/EHR system has existed in healthcare for some time now with having both its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of EMR/EHR are being legible, its longer lasting, its easily accessible, it reduces documentation errors, it improves privacy and security for patient, it easily integrates all patient information to one record, requires less storage, and it helps greatly in the clinical decision-making process by being able to compare current data with the previous. The disadvantages are how expensive the software is, it causes less patient interaction, it increases the risk for technical malfunctions, the amount of training needed, and reduces oversight as a lack of proofreading can lead to false documentation.

Since healthcare has gradually transitioned into using the EMR/EHR system, the U.S. government have developed incentives for institutions who use it and penalties of who dont. By promoting the meaningful use of health information technology into patient care, HITECH provides incentive payments, under the Medicare and Medicaid programs, to reward providers of who follow the three stages of implementing meaningful use (Potter et al., 2017, p. 357). If an institution doesnt use or follow the requirements of meaningful use, then incentives to the provider and/or institution decreases or arent given at all. Having this in mind enhances the promotion of using meaningful use and the EHR/EMR system at it enhances effective patient care while receiving financial gain from it.

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