Competency B

Electronic records consist of any type of digitized information that is recorded and stored on a computer (State of Michigan, n.d.). These records have become increasingly important as computer technology has matured, and include a wide variety of digital information, such as images, databases, documents, and electronic health records (EHRs). Informaticists must regularly evaluate electronic records and ensure that they are properly stored, maintained, updated, and destroyed depending on the record’s type and lifecycle stage. In order to properly manage electronic records, information professionals must develop electronic recordkeeping programs to specify retention, maintenance, and disposal schedules throughout a record’s lifecycle (State of Michigan, n.d.). In many cases, governmental laws define how a record should be stored and how long it should be retained – this is especially true for EHRs, which contain sensitive and private patient health information. Electronic record keeping can also be applied to personal files and can help prevent old and unused files from taking up space on a user’s personal hard drive or cloud storage.

Many of the courses in this program have helped me learn about the importance of properly maintaining, managing, and developing electronic records programs. INFM 206, Electronic Records Foundations, introduced me to EHRs, the laws that regulate them, and the various systems that allow EHRs to be accessed digitally. In the United States, federal and state laws strictly define how these records should be stored, and all EHRs systems must abide by these regulations (State of Michigan, n.d.). During this course, I had the opportunity to create a plan to implement an EHR system from the perspective of a project manager. For this project, I focused on adding e-prescribing, patient portals, and Apple Health integrations into an existing EHR system. Additionally, in INFM 206, I had the chance to discuss the challenges and laws surrounding EHR systems with my classmates. Many of my classmates worked in the healthcare field as information professionals, and I learned about the challenges of working with EHRs from a professional perspective. Both the discussion posts in INFM 206 and the course project helped me understand how to evaluate, manage, and develop electronic records programs for healthcare organizations in the United States.

Properly evaluating, managing, and developing electronic records programs is an essential part of creating a strong information system that protects user data. In the healthcare field, EHR systems are difficult to develop because they must follow governmental regulations and protect patient privacy. In INFM 206, I had the opportunity to create a project that focused on integrating e-prescribing, patient portals, and Apple Health upgrades into an existing healthcare organization’s EHR system from the perspective of a project manager. This project helped me understand how EHR systems work within a healthcare organization and how to plan, develop, and transition these integrations into an EHR system that is already in use. Additionally, conversations with my classmates who work as information professionals in the healthcare field have helped me understand how electronic records are managed in real-world settings. Researching how EHRs can be used as both patient records and legal documents has helped me understand the laws that govern EHR data and how important it is to properly develop electronic records programs that protect sensitive patient records. This competency has helped me learn about electronic records from a healthcare perspective, which has improved my understanding about evaluating, managing, and working with electronic records in different organizational settings.