If you’re involved in medicine in America, you’ve likely heard the terms electronic health records (EHR) and electronic medical records (EMR) used interchangeably. When pondering EHR vs EMR, you may have thought to yourself, “What’s the difference, anyway?” In this video, we’re going to dive deep into that very question. Learn more in our EHR-EMR […]
If you’re in medicine in America, you’ve likely heard the terms electronic health records (EHR) and electronic medical records (EMR) used interchangeably and wondered, “what’s the difference between EMR and EHR?” EMR Defined Beginning with the post-World War II Veterans Administrations’ efforts to computerize their health records and continuing today, electronic medical records have been developed to centralize and normalize healthcare information and delivery.
The term electronic health records did not emerge until much later, during the 2000s, and thus the confusion began. EMRs are a digital representation of the information that would have previously been stored in patients’ paper charts. Capturing this information electronically allows for easier population health modeling, tracking of community health issues, and provides an easily searchable, historical data store. So, how is this different from an EHR?
EHR Defined “Electronic Health Records (EHRs) do [all the things done by EMRs] — 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.” They both capture clinical data and allow it to be searched and managed, but an EHR takes it a step further and is Benefits of Electronic Records To fully consider the benefits of electronic medical or health records, one must consider the system they replaced: paper records.
If nothing else, physicians’ handwriting is so notoriously bad that it has become a pop culture phenomenon. Despite the considerable growing pains experienced by many when adopting electronic records, most will agree that they’re a better system than what they replaced. In the real world, there’s little difference between EMRs and EHRs. The terms can be used interchangeably — everyone will know what you’re talking about. Have questions about EHRs or EMRs?
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If you’re involved in medicine in America, you’ve likely heard the terms electronic health records (EHR) and electronic medical records (EMR) used interchangeably. When pondering EHR vs EMR, you may have thought to yourself, “What’s the difference, anyway?” In this video, we’re going to dive deep into that very question.
Learn more in our EHR-EMR software guide.
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