Paper records of a person’s health and medical care history, including both written reports and graphic information, can pose not only confidentiality concerns but also accessibility and accuracy problems that can interfere with timely and effective treatment.
Electronic health records, as part of an integrated health information system, address these problems by making a patient’s health information available anytime, anywhere. EHRs also support patient self-monitoring systems, home care, remote monitoring and other increasingly prevalent practices. Further, EHRs help save energy and paper and support more sustainable processes.
Schneider Electric has been involved in integral electronic health care information and management systems since 1996, refining the technology to achieve optimum support to health professionals. As a result, it offers the TiCares solution, which has been implemented in several hospitals in Spain and Latin America; references are available. This solution is helping health professionals diagnose and prescribe treatment and preventative actions more efficiently — and benefitting all stakeholders.
2. Summary
Executive summary ................................................................................... p 1
Introduction ............................................................................................... p 2
What is the Electronic Health Record? ....................................................... p 4
Modern health care ................................................................................... p 5
Extensive experience ................................................................................. p 6
Conclusion ................................................................................................ p 7
3. Electronic Health Records
Executive summary
Paper records of a person’s health and medical care history, including both
written reports and graphic information, can pose not only confidentiality
concerns but also accessibility and accuracy problems that can interfere with
timely and effective treatment.
Electronic health records, as part of an integrated health information system,
address these problems by making a patient’s health information available
anytime, anywhere. EHRs also support patient self-monitoring systems, home
care, remote monitoring and other increasingly prevalent practices. Further,
EHRs help save energy and paper and support more sustainable processes.
Schneider Electric has been involved in integral electronic health care
information and management systems since 1996, refining the technology
to achieve optimum support to health professionals. As a result, it offers the
TiCares solution, which has been implemented in several hospitals in Spain
and Latin America; references are available. This solution is helping health
professionals diagnose and prescribe treatment and preventative actions more
efficiently — and benefitting all stakeholders.
Paperless health care management
White paper on Electronic Health Records | 01
4. Electronic Health Records
Introduction
Health records are generally defined as the collection of documents that contain
data, assessment and information of any nature relating to a patient’s situation
and progress during their health care process. Health records are made up of
both written and graphic data, which refer to an individual’s personal health and
illnesses and the medical care that he/she has been provided.
Traditional health records have developed technologically and become available
in digital and electronic formats.
Paper records caused archiving errors and questionable guarantee of
confidentiality, indirectly causing tests and treatments to be repeated, and even
sometimes attendance errors. It was very difficult to continually monitor an
individual’s health throughout their life using the paper format.
White paper on Electronic Health Records | 02
6. Electronic Health Records
Electronic Health Records
What is the Electronic Health Record?
The Electronic Health Record is a new model
which champions an organizational and
technological system, tackling these difficulties.
It essentially focuses on global, integral access
and record of health information throughout an
individual’s lifetime.
Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs) are therefore incorporated at the core of
health care services. As a consequence, health
records will no longer merely consist of data
generated from an encounter between a patient
and a professional or a health centre, but will form
part of an integrated health information system.
The ability to locally distribute a patient’s health
record, not only in one country but in several, is
becoming more and more probable. It is therefore
very important that the health information can
be available anywhere and that structures such
as XML, Web services, open source systems or
similar are the foundations of this records model,
which is accessible any time and anywhere.
White paper on Electronic Health Records | 04
7. Electronic Health Records
Modern health care
EHRs are fundamental to e-health, which is
essential for modern and quality health care. This
concept includes patient self-monitoring systems,
home care, remote monitoring, telemedicine,
remote surgery, electronically exchanging
messages, records, databases, regional and
national networks.
Health information and documents should be able
to pass through and be shared at different levels of
care without the existence of knowledge barriers.
Electronic Health Records are not only quicker
and easier to use, they save time and costs,
and improve patient service, also presenting a
considerable number of environmental benefits,
such as saving energy and paper.
White paper on Electronic Health Records | 05
8. Electronic Health Records
Extensive experience
Schneider Electric has more than 20 years of Some of the main references that could be
experience working with health care information mentioned are:
systems. It was one of the pioneering companies in
Spain in the field of electronic health records. • Provincia Bética de la Orden Hospitalaria de
San Juan de Dios, which has more than 12
Electronic Health Records were first implemented private health centres in Madrid, Andalusia and
in the digital environment in 1992, in Spanish the Canary Islands
Secondary Care and more specifically in Intensive • Ambitious project for the Dominican Republic
Care Units. Ministries of State, Public Health and Social
Care, where a unique electronic health record
Two years later, Schneider Electric reapplied the system is successfully being introduced for
concept which started to emerge more strongly in all Dominicans
Primary Care, and in 1996 development of the first • Project to introduce Electronic Health Records
integrated electronic health care information and in the University of Chile Clinical Hospital, and
management system was finalized. With time, it has its associated centres
been introduced to dozens of hospitals in Spain
and Latin America.
Schneider Electric’s solution for the electronic health
record system has undergone several technological
versions and has been perfected and improved
with time, until reaching the current versions in Web
mode and Java technology, named suite TiCares.
White paper on Electronic Health Records | 06
9. Electronic Health Records
Conclusion
Electronic Health Records in a nutshell:
• E-health is essential for quality health care in today’s modern and
mobile society.
• Electronic health records are quicker and easier to use, save time and
costs and improve patient service.
• Schneider Electric offers extensive experience in health care information
systems and valuable technological expertise in electronic health
records implementation.
Schneider Electric developed their first
integrated electronic health care information and
management system in 1996
White paper on Electronic Health Records | 07