Safe, Compassionate, Competent and Ethical Care

The number one reason for the implementation of the EHR is to improve the safety and quality of patient care (Katic, Soldo, Ozvacic, Milakovic-Blazekovic, Vrcic-Keglevic et al, 2007). Therefore, nurses have an obligation to work within this age of technological advancement and strive to identify problem areas and utilize opportunities to improve the system in order to prevent patient harm. For example, education and training of healthcare professionals is very important for the use of EHRs. “If systems are used in a wrong way it can create mistakes that generates wrong information and misleading interpretations. The system can then be hazardous for the safety of the patient” (Nordberg, 2006, p. 296). Therefore, any individual who has been granted remote access to EHRs must be properly trained prior to doing so. If an individual is not competent in accessing EHRs, it is their ethical obligation to refrain from doing so.

Since communication technology is continuously evolving, new technology such as mobile phones, hand-held computers and personal device assistants now allow healthcare workers to conveniently access EHRs from various locations. However, healthcare professionals have an obligation to make patient care and privacy a primary concern from any location as privacy is inherently an ethical concept. This involves limiting the amount of information accessed to only that which is pertinent to the user. Thus, healthcare professionals must readjust their thinking regarding health information. “Instead of considering whether they should disclose to others the information they control, they must learn to ask themselves whether they should peruse the information to which they have unfettered access” (Griener, n.d., p. 16). Therefore, maintaining patient privacy involves not only preventing unauthorized users from gaining access to EHRs, but also limiting the amount and type of information accessed by authorized users to only necessary information despite the convenience and ease of remote access to the entire EHR.