electronic health records drawbacks

Risks Associated with Electronic Health Records
While on the whole, electronic health records (EHRs) are a strong positive for the healthcare industry, and associated with better outcomes, that does not mean they are without risks and drawbacks. For example, there are still security risks associated with EHRs, but the risks are different than the security risks associated with paper records. Cybersecurity is a class unto itself – risks often come as the result of poor password hygiene, but there are other ways for a hacker to get access to health records as well. Poor password hygiene is human error, which when combined with active attempts to gain access to secure health records, leads to a variety of risks including legal ones (Raposo, 2015).
In addition to risks, there are drawbacks. First, because of the need to comply with HIPAA, there are only so many systems for managing EHRs, and these tend to be quite expensive. The increased cost burden, especially for small practices, can be extraordinary, running into six figures (Fleming, et al, 2011).
Furthermore, the major shift in technology that EHRs represent can create problems for the people who work in health care. There is typically an extensive amount of training required, and this for workers in an industry that are simply not accustomed to things like information technology and change. The reality is that a lot of medicine is practiced by baby boomers, new immigrants, administrators without much formal education, people who barely know how to use Facebook – these are not millennials from Silicon Valley. The learning curve for the people who need to become experts quickly is actually very slow and painful. There is often substantial resistance to the implementation of the new technology. The benefits of EHRs mainly accrue when they are implemented well and adopted enthusiastically, but the conditions for this may not exist in all health care facilities.

Management
The relevant range is the range at which the data has statistical significance. Some activities are bound by a minimum and maximum amount (Accounting Tools, 2018). When something falls outside of the relevant range, that is basically an outlier that should be investigated, as it might mean a measurement problem, or something else. In the management context, the relevant range is typically related to budgeting, but the concept can really be applied to anything that has a range, like blood pressure would be a good example of a medical measure that has a relevant range.
There are two main types of costs: variable costs and fixed costs (Nikolas, 2018). The fixed costs are the ones in a business that do not change with the demand. To illustrate, we will use a coffee shop. Two fixed costs are the rent and the insurance. Basically, whether the shop has any customers or not, it has to pay rent, and it needs insurance. So these are fixed costs, in that they will be there regardless of whether or not the shop even has a customer – even if it never opens.
Variable costs are the costs that rise and fall with the demand; they are related to the activity that the company undertakes. In the coffee shop, there are ingredients such as coffee, and another one would be staff. Coffee and other ingredients are obvious – the amount of coffee that the shop needs to buy is directly related to the amount of coffee that it sells.
Labor is a cost that usually has both a fixed and variable component. In the coffee shop, it is entirely variable. If the shop has very few customers, the owner can handle the job without hiring anybody. Only when there are customers – demand – will there even be a labor cost. Of course, the more demand there is, the more people have to be hired and the more hours will have to be paid. That makes labor at the coffee shop a variable cost. In other business – like a hospital – a substantial percentage of labor would be fixed – only overtime would be variable for a large, mature business. So it is important to understand what the distinction between fixed and variable costs is, especially for the costs that have both a fixed and a variable component.

References

Accounting Tools.com (2018) Relevant range. Accounting Tools.com. Retrieved March 29, 2018 from https://www.accountingtools.com/articles/what-is-the-relevant-range.html

Flemin, S., McCorkle, R., et al (2011) The financial and nonfinancial costs of implementing health records in primary care practices. Health Affairs. Vol. 30 (3) 481-489.

Nikolas, S. (2018) What is the difference between variable costs and fixed cost in economics? Investopedia. Retrieved March 29, 2018 from https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/032515/what-difference-between-variable-cost-and-fixed-cost-economics.asp

Raposo, V. (2015) Electronic health records: Is it is a risk worth taking? GMS Health Technology Assessment. Vol. 2015 (11) doi: 10.3205/hta000123