Medical ADP Systems: Automated Medical Records Hold Promise to Improve PatientCare

摘要

Health care organizations see the need to automate much more intensively thanthey have in the past. GAO found that automated medical records offer the potential for great improvements in management of patient care. Automated records are far more accessible than paper records, more complete and accurate, can increase staff productivity, and may reduce operating costs. Factors which have impeded progress, include technology that is not fully developed or is considered too costly, potential misuse of automated information, and user resistance to automated systems. Other factors need to be addressed. At present, there is a lack of standardization in the ways data are collected and processed, which limits their usefulness for research. Automated records also raise questions about the security and privacy of sensitive information. In addition, the legal implications of automated patient records are still not clearly defined. In spite of these problems, there are significant benefits with automation. Solutions to the problems associated with automating medical records need to be found. Whether computers can support medical practice seems less the issue than how to bring about the development and use of the technology to do so.