In the world of health records there remains the great debate over whether electronic health records are safer than paper charts. With the federal government offering financial incentives for doctors to adopt electronic health records, it is estimated that over 50% of healthcare providers have adopted some type of electronic health records. If these estimates are correct, then about 50% of healthcare providers are still using paper charts.
When you think of paper charts you think of stacks of charts lined up in alphabetical order. As a patient arrives for their appointment, a staff member would pull the patient chart and set that chart in a chart rack. When the patient was taken back to the examination room, the chart was typically placed in a chart rack hung on the exam room door. Prior to entering the exam room, the doctor would take the chart off the exam room door, read the chart and then enter the exam room. During the exam, the doctor, physician’s assistant, nurse and or medical assistant would write in the chart and record the new patient health data. After the visit, the chart would be filed back in the wall of paper charts.
Paper charts were the gold standard for medical charting until 2000. As technology improved and hardware become faster and more affordable, the electronic health record began to catch on with the medical community. Prior to 2000, a paper chart was portable, easy to record health data and inexpensive to purchase. But with paper charts came many costly mistakes. The number one issue became “illegible” writing in the paper chart. What good is a medical record you could not read? If a test was ordered the paper chart was placed into a stack with other charts and would remain there until the test results were received. This is how your doctor would know you had an outstanding test result. To visit a busy medical clinic one would find stacks and stacks of paper charts all around the medical clinic. If a patient called with a question regarding their health records then the staff would have to look through stacks of charts to find these health records. In many cases, charts would be misplaced and the patients would need to be called back when the paper chart was found. God forbid there was a fire or water damage as these charts could be lost forever.
Each day more and more healthcare providers drop their old paper charts and implement electronic health records (EHR). Implementing an (EHR) enables a doctor and their staff to immediately access a patient’s health records. In addition, (EHR) eliminates the chances of losing patient health records. Some argue that electronic health records are available to everyone in a medical practice to view and that this can create issues. In 2009, the US Governments Hi-Tech Act set new standards with all companies developing electronic health record software ensuring that all software would provide tracking features in the EHR software. These tracking features would not only restrict certain staff from accessing patient health records but also track everyone that accesses a patient’s health records. In addition to tracking, all health data moved over the Internet is encrypted for security to protect health data. Most events reported for breaches in electronic health data have to do with data left on a laptop and misplaced or stolen. These breaches are typically from carelessness and could have been prevented.
So are paper charts more secure than electronic health records? It is estimated that over 90% of medical paper charts were never locked up in a secure file cabinet each night after the health clinic closed. At any time after hours, a cleaning person could simply open a paper chart, read the paper chart and even make photo copies of your paper chart with all your health data. In this case no one would ever know that your health records were compromised. Anyone working in a medical clinic during business hours could access a paper chart and make copies of the health data too. With electronic health records, all access to patient records are recorded by date, time and the user that accessed the patient’s health record. Staff member that do not need access to patient health records are restricted from viewing the patient health records by their electronic login. The only way around this would be to have a staff member with access to health records allow a staff member without access to health records to view a patients chart. This could also be done with paper charts. We would all like to believe that the vast majority of people that work in health care do so with good intentions.
So are paper charts more secure than electronic health records? The overwhelming answer would be “yes”. However, when it comes to monitoring your health records the word is “responsibility”. Even with all the security developed with electronic health records, mistakes can be made with your health data. Taking the time to review your health at least twice a month is the best approach to maintaining accurate health data. If you have questions regarding your health data displayed on ViewMyHealthRecords.com, it is recommended that you contact your healthcare provider to review these questions. Rest assured in knowing that ViewMyHealthRecords.com will continue to provide safe and secure access to your health records. As the leader in providing online access to electronic health records, ViewMyHealthRecords.com is you answer to monitoring your electronic health data and ensuring that all your health data is correct.