EHR is the summative electronic record of health-related information on an individual that is created and amassed cumulatively across more than one health care organization and is managed and consulted by licensed clinicians and staff involved in the individual's health and care. The EHR is owned by the patient and has patient input and access that spans periods of care across multiple CDOs within a community, region, state or entire country. EHRs are connected by the National Health Information Network (NHIN) and provide interactive patient access as well as the ability for the patient to append information.

In simple terms, EHR is similar to an EMR with interoperability because it can integrate other providers' systems to gain more information about a particular patient. Therefore, an EHR can provide a more in-depth view of a patient's health and history by pulling information from other systems, providing clinical decision support and alerting providers to health maintenance requirements.

Houston Neal of Software Advice said in terms of nomenclature, "electronic medical records" remains a more commonplace term relative to "electronic health records." He observed this in Google's search trend data. The average number of monthly searches for "electronic medical records" is 14,800, while "electronic health records" only gets 3,600. "One interesting geographical twist we discovered," says Neal, "search frequency in Washington, DC is about the same for both phrases. This probably reflects that many government organizations have adopted the EHR term well before the mainstream market." (Read more information and Software Advice for Electronic Medical Records.)

Mark Anderson, CEO and Healthcare IT Futurist of the AC Group, Inc. says it comes down to the words "medical" and health." An EHR will provide a more comprehensive view into a patient's health and history by pulling information from other systems and providing clinical decision support and alerting providers to health maintenance requirements. It helps providers report and measure quality indicators for pay-for-performance incentives. On the other hand, an EMR is a single diagnosis or treatment record, most likely used by a specialist. For example, an orthopedist setting a bone may need a stand-alone EMR because certain specialists may not need information about patient history as much as they need specialty-specific workflows and templates.

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