Electronic Medical Records (EMR): Call for Empathy in the Patient-Clinician Relationship within a Technological Milieu: Implications for Professional Nursing Practice

Abstract

The patient-clinician relationship is complex and evolving. Once an entirely paper-based health care system, the demands for an increase in quality and lower costs of health care have prompted health care delivery organizations to seek the digital world. Conversion of old patient paper records to new computer-based patient records, including electronic medical record (EMR) systems, has commenced. The new wave of health administration and financial systems attempts to integrate innovative health care applications into their patients' “therapeutic encounters” with the intention to improve the quality of their care. The effect of EMR on the patient-clinician relationship has yet to be fully understood. This paper provides a theoretical conceptualization of the effects that EMR may have on the patient-clinician relationship, specifically through the incorporation of central concepts and theories for careful analysis of the health care institution.