Anticlue

What's in a Electronic Health Record

One of the core questions that plagues alot of healthcare establishments is to agree on what is actually containted within the electronic record. I personally have been blessed with hearing about the fact the a EHR only contains what the institutional vendor of choice believes to everything in the paper chart.

In an effort to assist in defining a standard, the Institute of Medicine has identified eight core delivery functions that the Electronic Health Record should be able to do way back in 2003 found here. These eight functions look to drive greater patient safety, quality of care, and efficiency within healthcare.

The eight functions are:

• Health Information and Data


• Result Management


• Order Management


• Decision Support


• Electronic Communications and connectivity


• Patient Support


• Administrative Processes (i.e. Scheduling)


• Reporting (ie. disease surveillance, patient safety)