How Much Should I Trust my Electronic Medical Record?

I just found out all my medical information is now kept in an electronic medical record. I am not sure how comfortable I am with this. I was told I needed to see a specialist and they would send my charts and information to him over the Internet. I have to wonder how much of it can be hacked into. I am not sure that it can possibly be kept as private as in a physical file in a doctor’s office. This has me very concerned.

I spoke with my daughter about it. She is a nurse and told me that emr software is used by almost all doctors now. It saves them time and money. She also told me it made it easier to send the pharmacist an electronic prescription, which keeps people from stealing prescription pads and using them to get drugs they do not need. I suppose I can understand that, but I still do not like all my private information available in cyberspace. The information in those records would make it very easy for someone to do identity theft. My daughter assures me they are perfectly safe; that the software has all kinds of protection built into it.

I do like the idea of my records being where they need to be at the drop of a hat. S9ince they use electronic medical software , I would guess it is better than just sending a fax of every page to someone. I trust my daughter’s judgment, so I am going to stop worrying about it. Maybe it will help bring medical expenses down to something reasonable.