Electronic Health Record System Essay

Electronic health records systems have considerably upgraded and has enriched the healthcare medical centers for good. Presently, my workplace at Kaiser uses the Epic system which has positively impacted the efficiency of documentation that provides more time for the nurses to give patient care. For example, when I first started nursing we were still charting on paper along with physicians writing down orders with very poor penmanship. Not only did it waste a lot of time away from patient care by constantly going back to the physical chart to check on new orders, but the clerk also had to input the orders in the computer. Some nurses would not clarify orders due to hastiness or laziness which created many medical errors that could have been prevented and would have not resulted in harm or danger to the patient. Time was wasted trying to verify orders or decipher what was written by the physician, which became increasingly frustrating for the
When in fact that time could have been spent saving a life or much needed patient care. Now that we have electronic health systems, physicians can place orders themselves by checking a box without any doubt of error. This alone has saved a lot of time, money, mistakes, and even lives. The only negative consequence with electronic documentation is that it can take away from a personal connection with the patient. For example, when the nurse is typing on the screen, instead of talking to the patient face to face and building a positive rapport. Overall, I believe the benefits of using Epic far outweigh the negative aspects of not using an electronic system. Now that the electronic systems are standard in most hospitals, it does in fact give nurses more time to spend with patients as well as efficiently manage time and improve patient care in