Electronic Medical Records and Public Perceptions: A Deliberative Process

Public Views On Electronic Medical Records

There are conflicting definitions for what constitutes an EMR (National Alliance for Health Information Technology, 2008). For purposes of using consistent terminology that would be familiar to the public, we used the term EMR to mean patient-centered medical information that can be shared electronically between hospitals, clinics, physician offices, or other healthcare delivery locations.² A basic EMR includes a patient’s history and demographics, patient problem list, physician clinical notes, comprehensive list of patient’s medications and allergies, computerized orders for prescriptions, and ability to view laboratory and imaging results electronically (Hsiao, Socey, & Cai 2011). The use of EMRs has been increasing in recent years (Wright, 2012). In 2011, 57% of office-based physicians reported that they use all or partial EMR systems: a 12% increase from 2010 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, 2011). Hospital adoption of EHRs systems has doubled since 2009 to 34.8% (Charles, Furukawa, & Hufstader, 2012) although only a small percentage report having comprehensive electronic records systems (Jha et al., 2009).