Tag Archives: records
File Processing Systems
Even the earliest business computer systems were used to process business records and produce information. They were generally faster and more accurate than equivalent manual systems. These systems stored groups of records in separate files, and so they were called file processing systems. Although file processing systems are a great improvement over manual systems, they do have the following limitations:
Data is separated and isolated.
Data is often duplicated.
Application programs are dependent on file formats.
It is difficult to represent complex objects using file processing systems. Data is separate and isolated. Recall that as the marketing manager you needed to relate sales data to customer data. Somehow you need to extract data from both the CUSTOMER and ORDER files and combine it into a single file for processing. To do this, computer programmers determine which parts of each of the files are needed. Then they determine how the files are related to one another, and finally they coordinate the processing of the files so the correct data is extracted. This data is then used to produce the information. Imagine the problems of extracting data from ten or fifteen files instead of just two! Data is often duplicated. In the record club example, a member’s name, address, and membership number are stored in both files. Although this duplicate data wastes a small amount of file space, that is not the most serious problem with duplicate data. The major problem concerns data integrity. A collection of data has integrity if the data is logically consistent. This means, in part, that duplicated data items agree with one another. Poor data integrity often develops in file processing systems. If a member were to change his or her name or address, then all files containing that data need to be updated. The danger lies in the risk that all files might not be updated, causing discrepancies between the files. Data integrity problems are serious. If data items differ, inconsistent results will be produced. A report from one application might disagree with a report from another application. At least one of them will be incorrect, but who can tell which one? When this occurs, the credibility of the stored data comes into question. Application programs are dependent on file formats. In file processing systems, the physical formats of files and records are entered in the application programs that process the files. In COBOL, for example, file formats are written in the DATA DIVISION. The problem with this arrangement is that changes in file formats result in program updates. For example, if the Customer record were modified to expand the ZIP Code field from five to nine digits, all programs that use the Customer record need to be modified, even if they do not use the ZIP Code field. There might be twenty programs that process the CUSTOMER file. A change like this one means that a programmer needs to identify all the affected programs, then modify and retest them. This is both time consuming and error-prone. It is also very frustrating to have to modify programs that do not even use the field whose format changed. It is difficult to represent complex objects using file processing systems. This last weakness of file processing systems may seem a bit theoretical, but it is an important shortcoming.
File Processing Systems
Even the earliest business computer systems were used to process business records and produce information. They were generally faster and more accurate than equivalent manual systems. These systems stored groups of records in separate files, and so they were called file processing systems. Although file processing systems are a great improvement over manual systems, they do have the following limitations:
Data is separated and isolated.
Data is often duplicated.
Application programs are dependent on file formats.
It is difficult to represent complex objects using file processing systems. Data is separate and isolated. Recall that as the marketing manager you needed to relate sales data to customer data. Somehow you need to extract data from both the CUSTOMER and ORDER files and combine it into a single file for processing. To do this, computer programmers determine which parts of each of the files are needed. Then they determine how the files are related to one another, and finally they coordinate the processing of the files so the correct data is extracted. This data is then used to produce the information. Imagine the problems of extracting data from ten or fifteen files instead of just two! Data is often duplicated. In the record club example, a member’s name, address, and membership number are stored in both files. Although this duplicate data wastes a small amount of file space, that is not the most serious problem with duplicate data. The major problem concerns data integrity. A collection of data has integrity if the data is logically consistent. This means, in part, that duplicated data items agree with one another. Poor data integrity often develops in file processing systems. If a member were to change his or her name or address, then all files containing that data need to be updated. The danger lies in the risk that all files might not be updated, causing discrepancies between the files. Data integrity problems are serious. If data items differ, inconsistent results will be produced. A report from one application might disagree with a report from another application. At least one of them will be incorrect, but who can tell which one? When this occurs, the credibility of the stored data comes into question. Application programs are dependent on file formats. In file processing systems, the physical formats of files and records are entered in the application programs that process the files. In COBOL, for example, file formats are written in the DATA DIVISION. The problem with this arrangement is that changes in file formats result in program updates. For example, if the Customer record were modified to expand the ZIP Code field from five to nine digits, all programs that use the Customer record need to be modified, even if they do not use the ZIP Code field. There might be twenty programs that process the CUSTOMER file. A change like this one means that a programmer needs to identify all the affected programs, then modify and retest them. This is both time consuming and error-prone. It is also very frustrating to have to modify programs that do not even use the field whose format changed. It is difficult to represent complex objects using file processing systems. This last weakness of file processing systems may seem a bit theoretical, but it is an important shortcoming.
Is There Any Difference Between EHR and EMR?
Often patients and medical professionals within the health care industry refer to electronic health records (EHR) and electronic medical records (EMR) interchangeably; however, these two systems actually serve somewhat different purposes. As far as EHR is concerned it is the sum total of a digital patient medical record accumulated over a period of time across different healthcare setups. Where as EMR is a digital patient medical record created at an individual healthcare setup. There is sizeable difference between the two one is at a macro level where as the other version of digital medical record is at a micro level.
The EHR (electronic health records) data can come through different community health workers, physician clinics, diagnostic labs, hospitals, pharmacies, patients and so on. It is a collection of data that, which is created, complied and shared across the entire healthcare system. It may be made up of electronic medical records (EMRs) from many locations and/or sources. A variety of types of healthcare-related information may be stored and accessed in this way. Electronic health record systems of today have a much broader range of functionality compared to early EMR’s that were used by clinicians mostly for diagnosis and treatment.
A typical EHR (electronic health records) system would include the following important features: digital patient records created across a network of healthcare setups, ability to seamlessly share information across the entire healthcare system, integration capabilities, support for PQRI automation, software that is also adaptive learning, secure portability features, integrated patient portal, no right templates, effective document/image management, voice recognition and handwriting recognition technology and meets other technical and legal requirements. There are numerous federal and state regulatory and compliance issues that you must be aware of. Having an EMR Solution that has guidelines programmed in (and is constantly updated by the vendor’s system) will keep you legally safe all year round.
An EHR (electronic health record) loaded with above features may definitely help to streamline the overall process of physician (or hospital) workflow. It can deliver unmatched benefits to doctors by way of time savings, easy storage solution, benefits of integration, timely access of patient medical records, improved quality of patient service, reduction in costs and better profit margins (ROI) for the practice. As discussed earlier EHR data is the sum total of patient medical information compiled across different healthcare setups, this aides in the overall process of diagnosis and treatment leading into better quality of patient service and patient satisfaction.
EHR has an advantage over EMR, as in being an aggregate of electronic records of health-information accumulated over time; the information being able to be transferred and accessed within the health care organization. These records would provide all the relevant medical history, medication and allergies, immunization status, laboratory test results, radiology images and billing status information of an individual or population, which would in turn enhance patient – treatment and care. Not to mention avoiding the hassle of safe-keeping papers and reports, ensuring easy storage and retrieval of health records at any given time. An added advantage is that, information can be shared and updated among attending practitioners and health organizations with ease.
EHR is bound to become one of the means of taking medical services to new heights. The word “health” is a much broader term that covers much more than the word “medical” does. The EHR’s (electronic health records) of today simply go a lot further than that of early EMR’s.