Electronic Medical Records or EMRs are becoming more and more popular with medical professionals. They have numerous advantages over traditional paper records and are quickly replacing them in hospitals, clinics, and doctors offices around the United States. In most cases, an EMR is part of a stand alone system that is located in a specific health care facility. An EHR, or Electronic Health Record, is a computerized record that can be shared in an enterprise-wide system.

As with most electronic records, an EMR is going to be subject to fewer clerical errors. The handwriting of doctors has long be the subject of jokes and the illegibility of paper records has led to countless treatment errors over the decades. An EMR eliminates issues of illegibility and significantly decreases the risks of errors of interpretation. It also makes it easier to standardize terms, abbreviations, and other data input.

Space and time are the biggest savings in switching to electronic records. The physical space required to maintain and archive physical records as required by law can quickly become prohibitive for larger medical institutions . Electronic records can be easily stored and are much easier to copy and transfer than physical files. The time and money spent to manually copy, fax, or ship paper records is all but eliminated in an electronic system. An EMR system can improve efficiency by at least 6% and the federal government has instituted a system of incentives and penalties to encourage all records to be converted by 2015.