It's essential to understand the difference between EHR (Electronic Health Records) and EMR (Electronic Medical Records) in healthcare. While both EMR and EHR store patient health information digitally, EHRs typically encompass a broader range of health data and are interoperable across different healthcare settings. There are many other critical differences between EMR and EHR that can impact patient care and the cost of delivering it.
Let us start by understanding the definition of both these terms independently.
Electronic Medical Records are an electronic version of a patient's paper chart in a provider practice, clinic, or hospital designed to enhance clinical decision-making and improve patient care delivery. They include the patient's medical history, diagnoses, medications, treatment plans, immunization dates, allergies, radiology images, and laboratory test results.
By using electronic medical records stored electronically on secure servers, providers can track patient data over time, identify patients for preventive visits and screenings, make better treatment decisions, and improve overall healthcare quality.
Electronic medical records are superior to paper records because they allow for easier storage, retrieval, and secure access to patient information, leading to improved accuracy, efficiency, and coordination of care. Additionally, they reduce the risk of errors associated with manual documentation and enhance security through encryption and access controls.
However, it is important to note that Electronic Medical Records can be created, gathered, managed, and consulted only by authorized clinicians and staff within one healthcare organization. This ensures the security and privacy of the patient's medical data.
Electronic Health Records go beyond standard clinical data by incorporating inputs from pharmacies, laboratories, wearables, and specialists. Thus, they offer a holistic perspective on the patient's health journey across different care settings. They help improve coordination of care between different providers and enhance patient outcomes by providing timely and accurate access to medical data.
It contains their medical history, diagnoses, medications, treatment plans, immunization dates, allergies, radiology images, and laboratory test results. It provides secure and instantaneous access to the treating providers and supports various care-related activities, such as decision support, quality management, and outcomes reporting.
Crucially, Electronic Health Records are designed to be accessible and managed by authorized clinicians and staff across disparate healthcare organizations. This interoperability fosters a more thorough understanding of a patient's health status, enabling informed and coordinated care decisions.
Let us learn more about the differences below.
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Electronic Medical Records |
Electronic Health Records |
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Scope of Information |
Contains patient medical history, diagnoses, medications, and treatment plans, usually within a single healthcare organization. |
Designed to be compiled, accessed, and shared by anyone who provides care or treatment for a particular patient or group of individuals. It moves beyond traditional boundaries of practice, health care network, and even geography to provide a complete, longitudinal record of the patient's health to enable more complete care coordination. |
Interoperability |
Cannot share information with other healthcare providers or systems makes it challenging to coordinate care with providers outside of a single organization. |
A higher level of interoperability allows patient data to be shared securely and electronically among authorized healthcare providers. |
Care Coordination |
Limited capabilities for care coordination. |
Designed to support care coordination across multiple healthcare providers and settings. This allows healthcare providers to share information and collaborate on patient care plans. |
Analytics and population health management |
May not have the same level of analytics and population health management capabilities as EHR. |
Often include analytics tools that allow healthcare providers to identify trends and patterns in patient health data. This information can be used to improve patient outcomes and population health. |