The Problem With Changes Made To EMR

If you have been following electronic medical records and how they are coming to be then you know that one of the problems that some state legislatures are having with it is the fact that many changes will go unnoticed on medical records. The reason this is a problem is because leaving your medical record in the hands of the wrong person might mean they alter something either purposely or unknowingly which could later affect your health.

An example of changes being a problem is if a doctor unknowingly changes a record to a child simply because he typed in the wrong middle initial. If the doctor changes something such as age, weight, or even allergies then the medication and the dosages of it will be altered as well. This is just one example of what could happen, it doesn’t mean it will but to be safe legislatures and congress want to make sure that any changes made to an electronic medical record will be documented.

The best part about this problem is there is already a bill making its way through congress that would require any activity on a medical record to be tracked and monitored. The nice part about this is that in order to track changes on medical records you need to have something to tie medical personnel to the records and by using their social security number or some other form of identification you will be able to do that with ease.

This bill that is making its way through congress was started by Senator Mark Leno who is out of San Francisco. Another thing that the bill lets patients do is request their electronic medical record at any time for any reason. This is not something that could be done in the past but with this bill on its way to becoming the new law, it will only be a matter of time before electronic medical records become stronger and more popular among medical professionals and patients alike.