Comprehensive Review of Electronic Health Record Systems (EHR)

This report provides a comprehensive overview of Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems, detailing their definition, importance, components, and concept. It explores the ten dimensions of EHR, including information capture, representation, and confidentiality, along with the steps required for effective implementation. The report highlights the advantages of EHR, such as improved quality of care and reduced medication errors, as well as disadvantages like physician burnout and high treatment costs. It also examines the EHR system in Saudi Arabia, noting the government's endorsement through Vision 2030 and the challenges of knowledge and English proficiency. The report concludes by outlining the role of EHR in signifying patient health history, facilitating communication among healthcare providers, and maintaining the quality of health services, supported by relevant references.

ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD SYSTEM (EHR)

CONTENTS
• What is EHR?
• Importance of EHR
• Components of EHR
• Concept of EHR
• Dimensions of EHR
• Implementation of EHR
• Advantages of EHR
• Disadvantages of HER
• EHR system in Saudi Arabia
• Role of EHR
• References

What is EHR?
• Electronic health record (EHR) is an accumulated and patient-
oriented method, which can store all the data of patients by using
software (Marque, 2017).
• EHR was introduced to support the health care providers in supplying
effective care to the patients.
• It is a well-maintained and secured system to store any patient data in
order to maintain an effective patient-physician relationship.

Importance of EHR
• Enabling quick access to patient records for more coordinated and
effective care.
• Securely sharing electronic information with patients and other
clinicians for better support (Marque, 2017)..
• Helping providers with more efficiency to diagnose patients, reduce
medical errors, and provide safer care.

Source: (Meeks et al., 2014)

Components of EHR
The components of EHR are as follows (Meeks et al., 2014):
1. Clinical decision support system (CDSS)
2. Computerized physician order entry (CPOE) and
3. Health information exchange (HIE)

Concept of EHR
• Electronic health record (EHR) system has been introduced in order to
improve the effectiveness of the health care delivery process.
• It is considered as a digital style of patient’s paper register.
• To enhance the quality of service in hospital (Keller et al., 2015).
• To lessen the treatment cost of the patients.
• To reduces the problem of manual work.

Dimension of EHR
The ten dimensions of EHR are as follows (MOH, 2019):
1. Information capture
2. Information representation
3. Data model and operational dimension
4. Clinical practice
5. Decision support
6. Confidentiality
7. Performance
8. Interoperability
9. QA and Testing
10. Scope of health content

Implementation of EHR
• The steps required for effective implementation of electronic health
record (EHR) are as follows (Healthit.gov, 2019):
1. Evaluate the need of the organization
2. Outline the approach
3. Promotion to a specialized EHR
4. Organize a training process for implementation of EHR
5. Attain meaningful practice
6. Endure quality improvement and management

Source: (Healthit.gov, 2019)

Advantages of EHR
The advantages of HER are as follows (USF Health, 2019):
• The EHR system allows the hospital authorities to provide a better
quality of care by exchanging complete information of patients’ health.
• It provides an up to date information about the patients diagnostic test
results, which will allow the health care provider to create a better care
plan for the patient.
• This system allow the physicians to directly communicate with the
pharmacy and ultimately reducing the medication errors by the
pharmacists.

Disadvantages of EHR
The disadvantages of EHR are as follows (Shanafelt & Dyrbye, 2017):
• Physicians’ burn out is one of the biggest problem.
• High cost of treatment for the patients.
• In order to educate the staffs in the systems, installation of new
software, training program initiation will be needed and this will
create major burden on the authority.

EHR system in Saudi Arabia
• The government of Saudi Arabia is endorsing the EHR system through
the Vision 2030 program.
• With advancement of the computer literacy in Saudi Arabia the
implementation rate of EHR system increases (Zaman et al., 2018).
• The lack of knowledge and English proficiency in the Saudi Arabia are
responsible for the decrease in HER system in the country.

Role of EHR
The role of EHR are as follows (Zaman et al., 2018):
• Signify the health history of patient
• Mode of communication for health care providers
• Presentation of legal document
• Provides resource for education in practitioners
• Maintain the quality of health services

References
Healthit.gov. (2019). Where can I find a step-by-step approach for electronic health record implementation? | HealthIT.gov. Retrieved
from
https://www.healthit.gov/faq/where-can-i-find-step-step-approach-electronic-health-record-implementation
Keller, M. E., Kelling, S. E., Cornelius, D. C., Oni, H. A., & Bright, D. R. (2015). Enhancing practice efficiency and patient care by
sharing electronic health records. Perspectives in health information management, 12(Fall).
Marquez, G. (2017). The history of electronic health records (EHRs). Elation Health.. Retrieved from:
https://www.elationhealth.com/clinical-ehr-blog/history-ehrs/ [Accessed 14th march, 2019].
Meeks, D. W., Smith, M. W., Taylor, L., Sittig, D. F., Scott, J. M., & Singh, H. (2014). An analysis of electronic health record-related
patient safety concerns. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 21(6), 1053-1059.
MOH (2019). National E- Health Strategy. Ministry of Health. Retrieved from:
https://www.moh.gov.sa/en/Ministry/nehs/Pages/vision2030.aspx [Accessed 14th march, 2019].
Shanafelt, T. D., Dyrbye, L. N., & West, C. P. (2017). Addressing physician burnout: the way forward. Jama, 317(9), 901-902.)
USF Health (2019). Benefits of Electronic Health Records. USF Health. Retrieved from:
https://www.usfhealthonline.com/resources/healthcare/benefits-of-ehr/ [Accessed 14th march, 2019].
Zaman, T. U., Raheem, T. M. A., Alharbi, G. M., Shodri, M. F., Kutbi, A. H., Alotaibi, S. M., & Aldaadi, K. S. (2018). E-health and its
Transformation of Healthcare Delivery System in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Health Sciences, 7(5), 76-82.