Cost Of EHR Essay

502 Words3 Pages

Cost of Electronic Health Record (EHR) Systems Advancements in technology has provided a different approach in handling health records. Shifting focus to quality and minimizing cost is currently a top priority for providers. This comes with the transition from paper to electronic health records (EHR) (How much is this going to cost me?, 2014). Even though EHR’s are very effective and beneficial, some health organizations continue to use paper records. The reason: high costs and challenging and prolonged process of implementing (Thakkar & Davis, 2006). This paper will briefly discuss the benefits, costs, and struggles of implementing EHR systems. “The purpose of the EHR is to create a health care structure that will allow simultaneous access to patient information, and give the support to make best possible decisions” (Thakkar & Davis, 2006). EHR’s benefit patients and workers but most importantly improves the overall health system. Benefits for patients can include providing detailed …show more content…

They can cost anywhere from $15,000 to $70,000 or more depending on the size of the provider (How much is this going to cost me?, 2014). The lack of capital is one of the most significant barrier for organizations wanting to invest in an EHR System (Thakkar & Davis, 2006). On the other hand, implementing an EHR system can save health organizations $81 billion a year (Thakkar & Davis, 2006). EHR’s can include the hardware, software, service contract, networking with a national data center, and lost productivity as hospitals teach physicians how to use the new system (Wang & Biedermann, 2010). To estimate the cost of EHR systems five components need to be considered. These cost components include: Hardware, software, implementation assistance, training, and ongoing network fees and maintenance (How much is this going to cost me?,