It allows the intercommunication between the staff which allows communicating with each other regarding any matter by sitting any where. It also allows using the same record of the same patient by multiple people at the same time. The records are safe and well managed and there are no chances of loosing or missing the records. The above stated are few of the many benefits that can be attained if the study is implemented and used. These benefits are beneficial for many people associated. These are beneficial for the physicians, consultants, staff members and as well as for the patients. (Benefits of EMR, 1)
Risks Associated with Centralized Records: Obviously no system can be a perfect system; apart from many benefits that are being provided by the centralized data marts of records there are still chances that some times for some reasons problems can take place in the centralized EMR as well. The possible risks associated with the implementation of centralized EMR are discussed here; these risks should be kept in mind so that preventive measures can be taken for these risks in future: The centrally designed EMR is obviously having a lot of data in it and provided with much higher security.
It also needs a connection that is very fast in terms of speed and also needs a robust model; this fast and robust connection is needed obviously at place or room of the office and this installment is expensive although it is a one time expense so there is no regret in making it. These systems are robust and have guarantees so one time expense would not be a bad decision. The centralized EMR is totally dependent over the speed of the network; if the network is not fast then obviously it will affect EMR and it will become slow as well.
Proper maintenance is required by these centralized systems as the entire system is depending over the server. Another issue can be the assurance of open data standards which will make it possible for the providers to choose different options but the delivery of data is not stopped. There are chances when your server gets damaged that the data will be lost but there are few strategies that can prevent this from happening; like if apart from storing over your server all the hourly backup is being maintained over the remote site which is being organized by EMR vendor then the data loss is prevented.
As the centralized systems contain a huge amount of data so great measures of security are placed like firewalls, encryption and EMR vendors. There must be a back up for the centralized data because centralized data is showing only a single copy of the stored data and if it is lost or the server is down for some reason then there is no other option but if a back up is maintained on some other place then it is safe.
If the main server is slow and back up is not maintained any where else then it will result in slow performance as well as it would not allow accessing the data. Security should be provided to the main server as it contains a huge amount of data and the hackers are attracted towards this main server. Along with other safety measures it is also necessary that unauthorized access should not be permitted. Every member should be a member and should be assigned a log in and password.