Good Example Of A Case Study: Are Electronic Medical Records A Cure For Health Care? Case Study

Identify and describe the problems in this case?

One of the biggest problem identified in this case study was the enormous cost of keeping the old system of preparing, storing, retrieving and updating of medical records. The article stated that the government allocates at least 18% of tit annual GDP to account for this service. In addition, the article also mentioned that the system is compromising the efficient health care delivery service because of the time it takes to retrieve, access and update a patient’s medical record. As a result medical requests often overlaps and physicians are forced to order unnecessary prescriptions. Finally, delivering immediate medical intervention is delayed because of the delay in accessing the updated medical records.

What management, organization and technology factors, are responsible for the difficulties in building electronic medical records systems? Explain your answer.

The management are often not prepared to take up changes especially one that is unconventional. An electronic medical record system is new for many people and considering that many senior physicians and medical personnel are not technologically advanced and updated, modifying the system can be quite difficult for them. In addition, these group are slightly aversive because of their unfamiliarity with the system.
What is the business, political and social of not digitalizing medical records (for individual physicians, hospitals, insurers, patients and the US government)?
As mentioned earlier, the old system consumed 18% of the total GDP. It is projected to increase to 25% by 2037 amounting to 40% of the total federal spending. Thus, instead of using this money for other more pressing needs the government is forced to shoulder an expenditure that can significantly be reduced. On the other hand, patients who are experiencing medical conditions that needs prompt attention are made to wait until all the medical records had been collated and evaluated. This delay can compromise the immediate recovery of the patient. Finally, the delay and the inefficiency on the part of hospitals compromise the hospital’s credibility in delivering efficient, effective and immediate medical attention.

What are business and social benefits of digitalizing medical records?

Digitalizing medical records can save enormous amount of money spent in maintaining and reproducing medical records. In addition, this can hasten the process of storing, retrieving, and reproducing records. The transfer of records and accessing information can be made efficiently that can significantly improve the business process. As a result this will improve the performance of the health care delivery system that would greatly benefit the community who are the primary stakeholders of the organization.
Are electronic medical records system a good solution to the problem of rising of health care cost in the United States? Explain your answer.
Yes it is. By digitalizing the system of medical records hospitals can significantly cut the cost of reproducing data. In addition, it would no longer require the manpower used to manage and handle the records. Instead, everything can easily be accessible by going through the hospital database after appropriate verification. In addition, this would cut the cost of redundant medical orders and unnecessary prescriptions which can instead be allocated to other areas that requires the additional funding.