Growth Of Electronics Health Records Market And Possible Issues

As paper based records are being rapidly discarded by the healthcare industry – a whole new market of electronic health record system for digitization and virtualization of medical records has been created. The market is presently growing globally at an annual rate of 6.4% and according to various market research organizations this growth trend is expected to continue till the year 2020. More than 54% physicians in the USA have already adopted electronic medical records systems and a vast majority of the rest is planning to implement this within the period of next one year.

The global electronic health records software market can presently be classified in two segments depending upon the way they are installed – web based systems and client-server based systems and from revenue perspective, the latter accounted for a major share of the market till the year 2013. But since then web-based EHR has become more popular and will remain so till 2020 primarily due to their nominal upfront cost and no requirement of installing new hardware systems or components. Till 2013 hospitals were the main customers as it can be seen from the fact that 90% United States hospitals had a certified electronic health record system installed by that time. Most of those hospitals were found to opt for client-server based systems for their ability of fast data transmission between multiple facilities.

There is absolutely no doubt that electronic health records systems come with a number of major benefits and also ensure reduced cost of treatment and better care. But physicians and healthcare professionals using these systems must also keep in mind that there might be some serious unintended consequences emerging due to implementation of poorly designed systems and also improper use. These can jeopardize the integrity of the system leading to errors those can put a patient’s life in danger and substantially decrease the quality of care provided. Unfortunately there is no regulatory framework for monitoring safety of EHR systems till now and it is very much possible that some of the systems presently available in the market may have incomplete or erroneous design specifications along with bugs or programming errors.

On one hand electronic health record software allows a clinician to perform jobs far more complex but at the same time they also feel the pressure of rapidly adapting to these systems which may also result in patient safety hazards related with these. Considering the fact that implementation of these systems and providing employees the required training require heavy investment and as the cost of replacement is also pretty high, it is really important that you choose the right system. Moreover as these systems are now coming with extended capabilities they also require more complex software and any flaw with the software will affect all medical records contained by the system. More complex systems also mean increased chance of usability errors capable of misleading the physicians. EHR systems have certainly changed the face of healthcare industry forever but one must also be extremely careful about choosing the right electronic health record system to ensure the best quality of service. More information on these systems is available online and you can visit Practicestudio.net for the same.

About The Author

Allison Chase is an expert in electronic medical records systems who also likes to write many interesting articles and blogs on the topic, educating people about this technology and talking extensively about the benefits of this service. She recommends PracticeStudio.net as the most trustworthy name in this business.


Redeem Your Tokens