Electronic Health Records

The reduction of medical errors and slowing down of soaring health care expenses are expected to result from the widespread use of electronic health or E-health records. However, only about 10% of doctors in solo or small-group practices are able to use such records primarily because of the considerable upfront costs of putting the computer system in place. Another issue is the large effort that has to be exerted by long practicing doctors in transferring data from paper to the computer.

E-health records can help both patients and insurance companies. Tasks that can be completed online include ordering prescriptions and recording of laboratory test results. Administrative expenses go down as reliance on electronic record keeping goes up since there will be no need to maintain many employees or a large storage space.