Electronic Medical Records Management Systems: An Overview

Records document the actions of an organisation's business activities. Nowadays, more and more government agencies, companies and healthcare organisations are moving towards electronic records from records on paper. In healthcare organisations, Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system is being used to capture, organize, maintain and retrieve patient's medical records. EMR system consists of a comprehensive database used to store and access patient's healthcare information. The EMR has replaced the existing paper medical records as the primary source of information for healthcare purposes for all clinical, legal, and administrative purposes. The paper aims to review the existing Electronic Records Management Systems (ERMS) and assess the impact of EMR systems on the healthcare industry. This paper also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of EMR systems and problems encountered while implementing and using the systems by different groups of users.