What are the differences between electronic medical records, electronic health records, and personal health records? (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between electronic health record, electronic medical record, and personal health record? ›

Whereas an electronic health record (EHR) is a computer record that originates with and is controlled by doctors, a personal health record (PHR) can be generated by physicians, patients, hospitals, pharmacies, and other sources but is controlled by the patient.

What's the Difference Between EHR and EMR? It's easy to remember the distinction between EHRs and EMRs, if you think about the term “health” versus the term “medical.” An EHR is a more comprehensive report of the patient's overall health, while an EMR is a narrower view of a patient's medical history.

Professional in Human Resources

The PHR is for the HR professional with experience in implementing programs with tactical/logistical orientation. The PHR certification emphasizes a practitioner's operational responsibilities for the organization's HR department.

a) The EMR is managed by the patient; the EHR is used within a clinician's office; and the PHR is intended for communication beyond the clinician's office.

An EMR contains the standard medical and clinical data gathered in one provider's office. Electronic health records (EHRs) go beyond the data collected in the provider's office and include a more comprehensive patient history.

EMRs and EHRs offer similar benefits regarding data organization, accessibility, and efficiency. Some key similarities include: Digital storage: EMR and EHR systems store patient information electronically, eliminating the need for physical medical or paper records.

An EHR is a computerized collection of a patient's health records. EHRs include information like your age, gender, ethnicity, health history, medicines, allergies, immunization status, lab test results, hospital discharge instructions, and billing information.

An Electronic Medical Record (EMR) is very similar to an EHR except for one key difference—EMRs do not share information. An EMR is more of a digital version of a patient's chart. The chart stays within one medical provider's system, and there is more of a barrier to sending it to other healthcare professionals.

Personal Health Record (EHR) is a patient-centred organisational system. A PHR is the same as EHR, but are meant to be owned, set up, and managed by patients. Just like EHRs, PHRs contain information like diagnoses, medications, immunizations, family medical histories, and provider contact information.

EHRs typically contain the same basic information you would put in a PHR , such as your date of birth, medication list and drug allergies. But EHRs contain more extensive information because they're used by health care providers to store visit notes, test results and much more.

What are the pros and cons of PHR? ›

Utilization of PHRs can be beneficial because it allows for the correction of errors in medical records and gives patients access to the information to share with other providers. Conversely, each provider may have a different system, thereby making patient utilization difficult.

Disadvantages of Electronic Medical Records

Storing sensitive patient data in the cloud—as many EMRs do—puts the data at risk of being hacked without sufficient layers of security. If a technical error occurs and your remote EMR software does not have the information backed up, all data may be lost.

There are different types of EMRs, including ambulatory EMRs used in outpatient settings, acute care EMRs used in hospitals, and long-term care EMRs used in nursing homes. Each type of EMR system is tailored to the organization's and clientele's needs.

Practice Management: Choosing an EHR System

The various kinds of EHR systems can be streamlined into two basic types: A server-based EHR system, also known as a physician-hosted system. A cloud-based EHR system.

Electronic medical records (EMRs) are a digital version of the paper charts in the clinician's office. An EMR contains the medical and treatment history of the patients in one practice.