Electronic vs Paper

Electronic vs. Paper: The Debate

Brian Harris

Kaplan University

HS 290-02

Electronic medical records has seen a growing popularity among health care systems that has been ongoing for the last several decades. There are many advantages to this type of documentation, just as there are some advantages to hard copy records as well. Some of the deciding factors as to which method of documentation that is used include storage space, financial and budgetary constraints, measures of physical security that are in place, and availability needs. These are just some factors that a health care system should consider when looking at whether they should upgrade to an electronic health record or continue the use of the paper medical record.

One issue that needs to be considered is available storage space. Either system will use up valuable space, but the electronic format utilizes far less. With the paper records, a records room is needed to house all of the printed out medical records. In the large health care facilities, this could mean dedicating thousands of square feet to the storage of these records. While in the case of electronic records, storage space is necessary to house computer servers which contain all the medical data within their files. Where a facility may use several thousand square feet of vital space to house medical records on paper, the same facility may be able to store the same data on computer servers that only occupy several hundred square feet of space. That square footage savings could allow a health care facility to provide another service to their patients and increase their revenue.

A large issue that is addressed is the financial constraints that each system places on a health care network. In the paper system, a large number of funds are spent on the copying and printing of documents, printer ink, shipping of documents to outside providers. The computer system spends its financial resources on computer maintenance, security monitoring,...