Personal health records are an essential aspect in provision of quality health care services. We need personal health records for various critical purposes that include; the improvement of patient engagement in their health. PHRs help patients track the progress of their health as they clearly provide information on various critical areas of their health (HealthIT.gov, n.d.) . It means that even when outside clinical settings, patients can easily keep in touch with their health care needs as per the information contained in their PHRs. PHRs further ensure that patient information is available when needed. There is a high likelihood that a patient will visit a healthcare facility a number of times. Having PHRs in place ensures that the patient’s medical history is readily available for reference and recommendation of the most appropriate treatment approach.
PHRs help reduce administrative costs for the healthcare facilities. It is possible through the provision of easy access to electronic prescription refills for patients and quick applications for scheduling of appointments. PHRs also provide the opportunity for the enhancement of services received by patients (HealthIT.gov, n.d.) . It is because patients can securely communicate and interact with the healthcare provider through PHRs and thus have the opportunity to receive quality and timely help from their physicians. PHRs also make the engagement of family in caring for the patient easy. They provide caregivers including those caring for children or patients who need such care better manage their patients and coordinate with healthcare providers in improving the well-being of their patient. PHRs are also essential in legal instances especially when solving patient problems requires legal interventions ( Marinič, 2015) . PHRs will provide the necessary information that will act as evidence where required. They could not only be critical for the patient by also for helping the healthcare practitioner where needed.
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References
HealthIT.gov. What are the benefits of personal health records? | HealthIT.gov. Retrieved from https://www.healthit.gov/faq/what-are-benefits-personal-health-records
Marinič, M. (2015). The importance of health records. Health , 7 (05), 617.
