Electronic Health Record Ethical Issues

1377 Words6 Pages

INTRODUCTION
An electronic health record (EHR) is a record of a patient 's medical details (including history, physical examination, investigations and treatment) in digital format. Physicians and hospitals are implementing EHRs because they offer several advantages over paper records. They increase access to health care, improve the quality of care and decrease costs. However, ethical issues related to EHRs confront health personnel. When patient 's health data are shared or linked without the patients ' knowledge, autonomy is jeopardized. The patient may conceal information due to lack of confidence in the security of the system having their data. As a consequence, their treatment may be compromised. There is the risk of revelation of thousands of patients ' health data through mistakes or theft. Leaders, health personnel and policy makers should discuss the ethical implications of EHRs and formulate policies in this regard. The electronic medical record (EMR) is the tool that promises to provide the …show more content…

When a patient is unable to do so because of age, mental incapacity the decisions about information sharing should be made by the legal representative or legal guardian of the patient. Information shared as a result of clinical interaction is considered confidential and must be protected.[11] Information from which the identity of the patient cannot be ascertained for example, the number of patients with breast carcinoma in a government hospital, is not in this