Expert urges electronic medical record keeping

Mr Suleiman Adamu, a Kaduna based Associate Health Record Member, on Tuesday advised health operators to adopt an electronic record system to reduce the loss of clients’ medical records.

Adamu, in an interview, said introducing ICT into the system would enhance proper documentation of medical records of patients.

He said the electronic record method would also enhance health services delivery among health facilities in the state.

"It is important that our health operators change from analog to ICT because it does not only boost staff efficiency, it also helps to prevent human error,” Adamu said.

He said the use of computers in hospitals will enhance speed and confidentiality through the use of passwords in assessing information as against the present paper-based record keeping.

“The analog way of record-keeping is accessible to all manner of hands through the central records library and can easily be tampered with any time,” he explained.

According to him, the use of computers will give room for back up and storage which can easily be transferred using flash drives or hard discs, which will reduce the risk of destruction in times of fire disaster or any other natural hazard that may arise.

"Each department; laboratory, X-ray, etc., should keep their records in their computer to make the conversion to electronic health system easy.

"It will also protect and limit the number of access to the information record.

"With these, we can see that the use of computers is inevitable as against the manual aspect of record keeping which is prone to errors no matter how efficient the custodians are.

"The use of computers in the practice of health information may bring about technological unemployment as a person can carry out the work of five people in a day, but it is the way to go.

“However, there is a need to employ the use of computers in our practices for effectiveness and efficiency in addressing the overwhelming health challenges,” said the expert.