Electronic medical records (EMRs) are a digital version of the paper charts in the clinician’s office. An EMR contains the medical and treatment history of the patients in one practice.

Electronic health records (EHRs) do all those things—and more. EHRs focus on the total health of the patient—going beyond standard clinical data collected in the provider’s office and inclusive of a broader view on a patient’s care. EHRs are designed to reach out beyond the health organization that originally collects and compiles the information. They are built to share information with other health care providers, such as laboratories and specialists, so they contain information from all the clinicians involved in the patient’s care.

via Health IT Buzz

In November 2009, a pharmacist working for the Department of Veterans Affairs was checking a patient’s prescription information, using a portal to the Defense Department’s health records system. But something was clearly wrong: The records said the female patient had been prescribed vardenafil — a drug for treating impotence.

According to the online newsletter “NextGov,” which first reported the story, the VA pharmacist then checked with the medical facility where the drug was supposedly prescribed. The pharmacist’s suspicion was confirmed: The information was wrong. The health-records query had returned another patient’s information.

It’s cases like this one that remind us how much we should love our users. And listen to them. And keep listening, even when we think we’ve heard all they have to say.

via Computerworld