EHRs Benefits and Drawbacks Pros and Cons of EHRs
| EHRs Pros | Rationale |
| Improve the quality of care delivered. | EHRs provide a system for collecting and storing accurate patient health information. The systems also provide an organized method for keeping medical records, making them easily accessible and sharable as needed. This supports the provision of care services that are timely and accurate. EHRs, due to their interoperability with other health information systems and support for information access and sharing, support the implementation of evidence-based practice (Dobrow et al., 2019). All of these factors are essential in the delivery of quality health care. |
| Improve efficiency in care operations for providers and patients. | EHRs allow care team members, including physicians, social workers, and patients, to collaborate easily, even when various barriers exist (Vos et al., 2020). The systems allow physicians and health professionals to easily upload, file, download, access, and share health information in real-time or as needed. The systems also provide portals that allow patients to access their health records conveniently without being physically available at the hospitals. |
| Highly scalable and customizable | EHR software is designed to be scalable to fit the size of its application. Healthcare organizations, big or small, can use EHRs to meet the size of the patients or populations they serve. The systems also allow scaling up to meet the growing needs of the organizations. Besides scalability, EHRs can be tailored to meet each organization’s needs or based on each department’s needs. The scalability and customization of the EHR systems mean that the organization can meet its current and future health information needs without needing new systems. |
EHR Cons |
Rationale |
| Increased concerns over privacy and security issues. | Digital systems such as EHRs are prone to cybersecurity threats. This means that adopting EHR systems opens the organization to cyber threats such as hacking and ransomware attacks, which may compromise the privacy and security of data held. There is also a risk of breaking hospital operations if such data breaches occur. |
| Potential liability concerns due to security breaches or malpractices | Healthcare organizations that adopt EHR systems must meet the set laws and regulations that guide the implementation and use of EHRs in healthcare. Healthcare organizations must protect information privacy to avoid potential Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) liability (Shachar, 2022). Adopting the systems means that healthcare organizations are entirely liable for the medical information they collect and store. Misusing medical record records, such as sharing them with unauthorized parties or not ensuring the security and privacy of the stored patient medical information, is a potential risk for related liabilities. |
| Require continuous updating to avoid data inaccuracies. | As earlier noted, EHRs enable different users to access health and medical records simultaneously. This means that the information stored within the EHRs must be updated immediately after it is collected to ensure that the systems are up to date. Suppose there are delays in updating the system from one point of information when new information has been developed, such as diagnosis or test results from the lab or a physician’s prescription. In that case, other EHR system users will access inaccurate information. Such information inaccuracies would risk medical errors such as wrong prescriptions or errors in disease diagnosis (Tariq et al., 2018). |