Electronic health records (EHRs) improve patient care and safety by centralizing all of a patient's vital health information. This ensures that clinicians have all of the information they need to make good medical decisions about patient care, reducing the likelihood of errors. Because paper-based documentation never seems to entirely disappear, many healthcare providers integrate their EHR solutions with document management. This allows them to link documents that originate outside of the electronic records, such as scanned images of reports from outside labs, and make them available as part of the EHR.
Healthcare providers that implement EHRs usually see a decrease in costs to create, update and store patient records, in addition to the convenience and safety advantages. Patients also benefit when an EHR eliminates the need for a healthcare provider to collect repetitive information. Many EHRs allow patients to access their own records to track their health history. Federal economic stimulus funds are available to help healthcare providers adopt EHRs that meet meaningful use standards. It's likely that within the next three to four years, use of EHRs will be mandatory.