Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Patient Access To Electronic Health Records: Strengths, Weaknesses And What’S Needed To Move Forward, Alicia V. Zuniga

School of Information Student Research Journal

Electronic health records (EHRs) are desired by both physicians and patients, but the transition to and acceptance of sensitive health information online has been slow. This paper reviews the current literature on EHR adoption and outlines barriers, advantages and explicit steps for moving toward the EHR ubiquity. Potential benefits of EHRs to patients and physicians include reduced costs for patients, hospitals and insurance providers, patient empowerment, less errors in records and better health outcomes, but security and privacy concerns, cost of implementation and poor electronic records management system design have proved barriers to adoption.