Challenges faced by medical records officer in Malaysia: Implications for healthcare management and patient care
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55573/IJAFB.117002Keywords:
Medical records officer, MRO challenges, skills, gaps, MalaysiaAbstract
The medical records management in Malaysia is undergoing transition from the traditional paper based to electronic medical records (EMR), hospital information systems (HIS), health information exchange (HIE), electronic health record (HER) and other similar terms. This transformation changes the nature of healthcare professionals’ work. MRO are the main part of the healthcare system in Malaysia specifically in managing patient information. They must protect patient privacy and confidentiality while providing access to authorized health care providers. This paper discusses the challenges, skills and gaps among MROs in Malaysia and its implications to health care management and patient care. Technology advancement, system interoperability, evolving of coding standard ICD-11 and data privacy issues are some of the challenges. Apart from that, human factor issues such as resistance to change, digital literacy gaps, and insufficient training, kind of adding sauce in the existing problems. Besides these challenges, there is also a significant ability gap due to differences in formal education, practical training, and the absence of comprehensive professional development frameworks. The consequences are significant, including compromised data accuracy, impaired decision making, operational inefficiencies, and compliance risks for healthcare management. From patient care, this will involve compromised safety, delayed diagnoses, reduce quality of care, tarnish trust and often lead to disjointed or incomplete treatment. This paper concludes with recommendations for enhanced training, competency framework development, infrastructure investment, and policy standardization to empower MROs, thus improving healthcare delivery and patient outcomes in Malaysia
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