¶ … computer-based vs. paper-based medical records, and discuss which are better. Record-keeping is an important and vital part of any medical practice. Keeping medical records ensures the health and wellness of patients by tracking their overall care and health history. Record-keeping is important for many purposes including legal information, health information and documentation, and keeping information that must be shared for professionals that are documented caregivers for patients. Thus, determining the best method for keeping records is vital to the patient and clinics success. Keeping paper-based medical records has been the standard for some time. Paper records provide a wealth of information. Only recently has the computer been seen as an effective tool for keeping medical records. Computers are now considered a confidential and safe tool for keeping medical records. There are many advantages of computer-based medical records. Computers have the ability to store a lifetime of health data in a manner that allows multiple users to access this data...

The Medical Record Institute states that clinical data held in a repository and integrated by many different sources is clinically characterized as a computer-based health record (Tange, 1999) which can link many different knowledge sources at one time. A clinical data system as this can allow linkage with many different health providers for healthcare support decisions and the collection of aggregate data (Shortliffe & Perreault, 2001). A physician can access this information from many different locations, even from their home in emergencies, and manipulate data in many different ways. Sampling and surveys can also be conducted online using data collected from medical records. Patient decision making and health promotion is also more easily managed with computer-generated medical records.
Of course, many healthcare providers are simply more accustomed to paper medical records. Paper medical records provide simple and easy-to-use checklists. They require very little training. Many traditional nurses and…