EMR vs. EHR

March 21, 2012 at 11:02 AM rmk255 1 comment

Do you know the difference between an “electronic medical record” (EMR) and an “electronic health record” (EHR)? There is a common misconception that these terms are interchangeable, and many people today could not tell you if there is a difference between the two terms, let alone what that difference is.

An EMR is essentially the equivalent of a paper chart for a patient that is filled out by providers within an individual healthcare delivery organization (e.g. hospitals, physician’s offices), and is a legal record owned by that organization. EMR computer software is sold by enterprise vendors to hospitals, clinics, and other care delivery sites.

An EHR is a subset of EMRs that contains patient information from different healthcare delivery organizations. These records are owned by the patient or stakeholder, and the information can be shared through an EHR network. Unlike EMRs, electronic health records are interactive and the patient can access and supplement the information contained in the file. EHRs connect different healthcare organizations and may contain more detailed information about a patient’s demographics, medications, medical history, etc.

So, in order to utilize EHRs and for them to be effective, EMR software must be adopted by healthcare delivery organizations. Based on an HIMSS Analytics report published in 2006, the majority of hospitals have begun to implement EMRs, but at that point were not beyond the earliest stages. Since then both EMR systems and EHRs have grown in utilization and popularity, considering the potential for the easy sharing of patient information between healthcare organizations. A 2011 presentation by HIMSS shows that in 2011 more hospitals are developing their ability to use EHRs.

Both EMRs and EHRs are clearly an area of high potential for the healthcare industry. As the systems are more widely adopted and developed further at various organizations, the added ease of access and quality of health information will ideally help care provider organizations provide better treatment for patients. There are potential worries related to privacy and security with this type of information being transmitted electronically, however that is an entirely different issue that I will leave to be discussed at another time.

Author: Jamie Notaro

Edited by: Ken Chiang

Share your input:

Other resources:

http://www.texmed.org/Template.aspx?id=5072