Evaluation systems of the Electronic Medical Records: A comparative study

With the development and implementation of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) in various countries, the evaluation systems of the EMRs are also expanding gradually. We systematically reviewed qualitative studies exploring EMRs evaluation systems which include the American Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) EMR Adoption Model (EMRAM), Meaningful Use of EMRs, The People´s Republic of China, PRC´s EHR evaluation standard, Taiwan EMRs audit program, and then we study the plausibility and feasibility of adopting EMRs as a novel evaluation model. The result shows that the HIMSS EMRAM´s main objective is to evaluate an EMRs application level and then to produce a function able market analysis report; meaningful use of EMRs is based on clinical workflow tasks; PRC´s EHR evaluation standard specializes on the computerized medical records systems in hospitals; Taiwan EMRs audit program focuses on information security and interoperability. The main differences among these evaluation systems reveal that the infrastructure of information system and developmental goals. Our findings support the necessity of setting up a fulltime organization to continue the promotion of EMRs evaluation process such as HIMSS EMRAM. Furthermore, the government in each region should subsidies those hospitals higher than level/stage 6 in PRC´s EHR evaluation standard or HIMSS EMRAM, and that all medical institutions should prepare for being evaluated by suitable evaluation system.