In electronic systems it’s much easier to find medical records while paperwork you
have to sort through them to find what you need. The specific challenges healthcare
providers face when retrieving paper records in urgent or emergency situations you
have to be think fast since it could be a matter of life and death. For example, a
patient could have a life threatening allergy to penicillin and you need to find his
paper record but you’re sorting through a lot of mess so by the time you sort out
the paper records the patient is dead. The potential risks in paper record is any
medical professional can steal them or take pictures for unethical reasons. Paper
records are so messy that they can get lost in the void. Paper records are stored in
locked areas. If they are no longer needed, they are destroyed. Human errors in
paper records can impact patients if the records are misfiled or patient receives the
wrong paperwork. It can cause delayed or a patient to receive the wrong treatment.
The patient could receive the wrong diagnosis. Health care organizations should
consider if paper records align with the workflow. The benefits of going digital is you
don’t lose the medical records and they can be locked with a passcode. The records
are organized.