The move toward computerizing medical records provides important benefits for nurses whether working in a medical office, or in a hospital. These benefits include improved patient care, more consistent patient care, avoiding handwriting misinterpretations, detailed clinical prompts, and having all patient information in one central place (Orlovsky, 2005).

For example, in a busy hospital, electronic medical records of prescribed medications may be combined with an automated system for dispensing medications at prescribed times and dosages, (Ibid.). In addition to keeping track of prescribed and actual administration of tests and medications, such systems also provide a central place where outcomes of such interventions are recorded—patient response to medications, for example, and clinical monitoring data, outcomes of  Xrays, ECGs, scans, blood tests and other procedures (HIMSS, 2009). An additional benefit of electronic medical records is the ability to keep all information about a patient in one place, including, for example, specific complaints (pain, nausea, fever, etc.) and allergies (Orlovsky, 2005). This also provides prompts for nurses to ask the patient questions about their feelings and experiences that might otherwise be forgotten, but which may impact their diagnosis or care.

Yet another benefit is the avoidance of medication and treatment errors due to misinterpretation of physician handwriting. In any system with automated patient records, doctors will be using those systems also, which means that nurses won’t have to interpret scrawls or misspellings. (Ibid.).

Automated records systems provide improved accuracy and completeness of medical records too, allowing smoother hand-offs between shifts (HIMSS, 2009). This not only improves the overall workflow for nurses, but also helps eliminate redundant documentation, and allows for automated collection of clinical data to assess and improve overall patient care processes (Ibid.)

Automating medical records offers numerous benefits for nurses, improves their work flow, reduces redundant paperwork, prompts nurses to ask after patient conditions, avoids many medication and other errors, and allows for better, patient-centered care.