Effect of Electronic Medical Records on Improving Patient Care

In the last few years, patient accessible electronic health records have been used more extensively in the United States, as well as other first world countries, as a promising solution to encourage patient involvement and shared decision making. The purpose of this was to improve compliance and outcomes in chronically ill patients, especially those who are prescribed multiple medications. Providing patient-oriented care is the foundation of ensuring patient involvement and active engagement that will result in positive outcomes. The physician-patient relationship has been given more focus recently, in efforts of optimizing the patient’s experience. Better communication between the two tends to show an increase in satisfaction, lessen the number of lawsuits against the physician, and have positive clinical outcomes. “Evidence has shown patient-provider communication is the most salient part of a medical visit” [1]. Better communication has also shown to have an effect on decreasing psychological symptoms, such as stress and fear.Chronically ill patients, such as those with diabetes mellitus type 2 and long-standing hypertension, show greater improvements after building a better relationship and communication pathway, with “improved drug treatment intensification, monitoring, and physiologic control among patients with diabetes, with great improvements amongst patients with worse control and less testing necessary”[2]. Therefore, it is best for society and the medical community, to emphasize and encourage a form of constant communication, such as electronic health records.