What Is a Computer-Based Patient Record?
No standard definition currently exists for a computer-based record. (Refer to the section "What issues should I take into account?" for additional detail about the progress of standards.) Marketing organizations have divided, sub-divided, and categorized this technology in various ways, but those efforts really distinguish the technology by buyer profile rather than essential purpose. For example, physician offices and hospitals represent dramatically different buying profiles, but each wants the same thing—support for a best cost/best outcome business model. While defining a computer-based patient record is seems straightforward, the challenges, however, are not in its generalities—most agree about the thing and its value—but rather in its specific properties:
The Medical Records Institute and Computer-based Patient Record Institute (CPRI) have a lot of additional definitional detail. Since this is an emerging technology, expect to see occasional inconsistencies. The market and the government will ultimately determine the answers to many questions. In the meantime, numerous product examples with many of the necessary attributes are available from a variety of vendors—Cerner Corporation, Eclipsys, Epic Systems, IDX, McKessonHBOC, Meditech, Quadramed, and Siemens Medical Solutions just to name a few. For a more comprehensive list, you can also visit the Healthcare Information Systems Directory site or the HIMSS web site.