Digitalisation of medical records changed the scenario. It has greatly benefited doctors and has paved the way for a more effective treatment of the patient. By a mere click of a mouse, doctors are able to ascertain allergic reactions of a patient to certain drugs. They no longer have to shift through a bunch load of papers. If they need extra clarity on a specific image, they simply adjust the contrast or brightness. They even blow up every minute detail of the image, for further clarity and verification. Even after the patient is cured, the records are kept preserved for further follow-up/ treatment.



Hospitals have also reaped benefits of digitalisation of medical files. All the personnel in the varied departments in a hospital, like the doctor, nurse, referral specialist, billing coordinator, etc. can work simultaneously on a patient's record. (Prior to computerisation, this information was transferred among the varied departments leaving it prone to damage.) The emergence of digital storage media has enabled plenty of records to be stored in a minimum of space. Hospitals have also successfully lowered their administration costs by using lesser manpower and by reduced expenditure on stationery.

After checking the patient, the doctor emails the prescriptions to the pharmaceutical department. The patient simply picks them up on his way back home. The medical records are the most important data of a patient. However, as they are stored in a digital format, they are prone to loss.

Failure of Computers Containing Medical Records

Computers are prone to failure. Viruses are a constant threat and computers face the danger of being infected by newer released versions of virus. Internal attacks on the computer, by disgruntled employees harbouring malicious intentions are another major source of threat. These employees usually have access to the most sensitive information of the patient and it is easy for them to steal it.

Consequences of stolen medical records are disastrous. Stolen medical records can be used for financial gain. This information can be used for obtaining insurance money from the agencies. Theft of medical records is resulting in enormous losses to the hospital and insurance agents. Apart from this financial aspect, stolen medical records also have a medical aspect to it.

They are also used by the criminals for obtaining medical treatment themselves. By this, wrong information gets entered in the medical record. For example, details of a major medical problem, which the patient has not undergone gets recorded. The patient is often unaware of the misuse of his record. This is a potentially dangerous issue and leads to wrong diagnosis and treatment. In severe cases it might even result in the death of the patient. This is a more serious form of misuse compared to the financial fraud committed using the records.

Precautions a Hospital can Take

A hospital can protect its patients from falling victim to such theft by using thin-clients. Thin clients, also called as lean clients, are computers without hard drives. They are connected by wires to a secure central server that holds all the data. No data gets stored on thin clients for they have no data storage drives. Thin clients used in the hospitals protect the data of the client.

Even if the equipment develops a problem, the medical records of the patient can still be easily accessed by replacing the device. However, probability rates of problem development are low as the system contains no moving parts. Hence problems to the system occurring from dust, or overheating of fast spinning magnetic platters are all eliminated. Thin client only works for client server environment. This feature of it renders it useless to burglars who evince more interest in computers.

Medical records being extremely important require adequate protective measures. Doctors fail to function effectively, in the absence of such vital data and might administer faulty or wrong treatment grievously harming the patient. In case of such problems even the jury fails to distinguish between lost records and intentionally destroyed records.