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COMPARE AND CONTRAST OF DIGITAL VS PAPER CHARTING

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COMPARE AND CONTRAST OF DIGITAL VS PAPER CHARTING

Digital and Paper charting refers to the different forms in which medical information are

recorded and stored. Medical records are made up of information that are reported by a patient

and the information that are collected by a medical practitioner and then they are recorded. The

use of both digital and paper charting has had various advantages and disadvantages in the field

of healthcare. Therefore, this paper will compare and contrast between digital and paper charting

in terms of manpower, time, and security.

There are various differences that exist between digital and paper charting. Security is the

first difference that exists between the two. Compared to digital which is more secured, paper

charting is more susceptible to loss because the records are in the form of paper and thus, in the

case of break in, an authorized person may access the all records. The second difference is of

manpower (QTS, 2019). Compared to digital records which require less manpower due to the

fact that the computer can run the records, paper charting requires more manpower because there

is no use of computer which can run automatically. Lastly, when it comes to time, paper charting

requires the health practitioner to use more time to record the patient’s information while on the

other hand, digital records consume less time because there is use of a computer which is faster.

Apart from the differences, there are various similarities that are evident with the use of

digital and paper charting. To begin with security as the first similarity, they are both prone to

security vulnerabilities in that, the digital records can be hacked while when the paper records

are handled carelessly, they can be accessed by unauthorized personnel. When it comes to

manpower, they both require manpower for them to be used.

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References

QTS. (2019). 5 Benefits of EMR vs. Paper Medical Records.

https://www.qtsdatacenters.com/resources/articles/five-benefits-of-emr-vs-paper-medical-records