Table 1.
Description of electronic health record (EHR) components, purposes within the electronic health system and patient care by National Institutes of Health National Center for Research Resources.
| EHIS Component | Function | Benefit to Patient Care |
|---|---|---|
| Patient Management EHIS | Patient registration, admission, transfer and discharge (ADT) functionality. Patient registration includes key patient information such as demographics, insurance information and contact information [14] | Populations and their needs are analyzed at a point of care to determine the services to be rendered to them [15] |
| Activity EHIS | Flow processed from when a client is entering the point of service till data is digitized on the system [15,16] | Traceability of health data |
| Clinical EHIS | Habitation of multiple sub-components, e.g., computerized provide order entry (CPOE), electronic documentation, nursing component [14] | Electronic clinical documentation systems enhance the value of EHRs by providing electronic capture of clinical notes; patient assessments; and clinical reports, such as medication administration records (MAR) [13] |
| Pharmacy EHIS | Islands of automation, such as pharmacy robots for filling prescriptions or payer formularies, that typically are not integrated with EHRs [13] | Improve efficiency of pharmacy services |
| Laboratory EHIS | Consists of two subcomponents: capturing results from lab machines; and integration with orders, billing and lab machines. The lab component may either be integrated with the EHR or exist as a standalone product [14,17] | Improve efficiency of pathology laboratory services |
| Radiology Information System and Picture Archiving & Communications System (PACS) | Manages patient workflow, ordering process and results [14] | Enables improved service delivery |
| The billing system (hospital and professional billing) | Captures all charges generated in the process of taking care of patients. These charges generate claims, which are subsequently submitted to insurance companies, tracked and completed [14] | Tracking of patient data and quality assurance |