Electronic Medical Records and Safety Essay

The article titled Computer Security practiceds Perspective on electronic Medical Records presents the views of an cultivation Technology (IT) auspices expert, Troy Thomas, on electronic checkup records (EMR). Thomas is the Chief Security and seclusion Officer for placeCorp which is the parent company of Key Bank. Thomas has a bachelors degree in Computer Information Sciences from Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH. Thomas asserts that the health check sedulousness is slowly becoming computing machineized and, eventually, electronic aesculapian records bequeath be the norm.He points come to the fore that, however, getting from a broad(prenominal)ly distributed, paper-based mannequin to a fully data processorized EMRs model volition be challenging. Changing to a more(prenominal) computerized EMRs model will introduce risks that the real paper-based model does not go and will solve some of the innate risks associated with the stream model. The current paper- based model congenitally has the side by side(p) risks records are susceptible to fire, flood, mold, termites, decay, fading of ink, and malposition of an entire folder or subsections. stem records are comfortably copied or stolen, easily entryed by office individualnel or nation who just happen to be near an unattended folder of health check records. An EMRs model inherently has the following risks computer equipment set up fail or break, engineering changes quickly, and training stored a long metre ago may not be easily accessed at a early date. Information that was once stored provoke go inaccessible training can be accessed by un originatorize individuals. Electronic selective information can be altered.Electronic components do not react well to fire, water, dust, dirt, humidity, universe dropped, or being abruptly unplugged. To decrease these inherent risks, modern computer centers have strict surroundal controls to ensure that computer equipment is run in an optimal environment and is backed up and available at an alternative site (for disaster retrieval purposes) and has proper security controls deployed to ensure that information can be accessed by authorized personnel only. Technology controls exist that can prohibit information frombeing altered. For example, thither are direct access repositing devices that allow information to be written once and read many times. The inherent risks of the paper-based model and the EMRs model are vastly different but mitigating controls exist that can adequately address the basic inherent risks described thus far. Typical, practicing physicians, however, cannot be anticipate to set up a dedicated computer center with all of the environmental, physical, and formal access controls that are involve to adequately safeguard their tolerant records.Therefore, for true EMRs to be really detain, a model or protocol is needed whereby physicians store their persevering ofs checkup records at a h onorable and secure data center that offers the physicians an outsourced service for accessing and storing EMRs. Unfortunately, a centralized computing model introduces novel inherent risks for example, are the outsource agencies reputable and can they be trusted with patient checkup checkup record information?With medical record information coming in from multiple physicians, a unique patient identification number would be needed so that records could be appropriately have within patient files. With so oftentimes information in one place, release controls would be needed to ensure that the people accessing the information receive only the information that is truly needed. Ensuring that quality information is captured and maintaining patient privacy will be the or so challenging aspects of EMRs. Computers dont correct quality. However, computers can make quality issues and mistakes very much more visible and potentially harmful.The author highlighted that the EMRs journey w ill probably correspond some of the issues that exist with electronic balloting where so many questions such as whether society can trust the vendors who carry the right to vote equipment. gouge a vote be altered after it has been claxon? How does society effectively centralize a highly decentralized model? Can foreign governments hack American voting equipment and influence an election? How is a persons voting history stored and secured? In the end, EMRs will be a humanity in the healthcare industry.The benefits of centralized electronic patient medical records outweigh the risks associated with changing the model. Ultimately, it is a question of trust, not technology. lead physicians trust their patients to stay with them when their patient medical records are more easily transferred to some other doctor? Will patients trust that their medical records are appropriately safeguarded against inappropriate access and that the information contained within their records is ac curate and of high quality? Ultimately, Thomas believes the answer to these questions is yes in the long run.