The South Australian Health Commission has embarked on a long term project to establish an Electronic Patient Record (EPR) for South Australia. The process requires extensive evaluation at the conclusion of each phase of development using a range of existing and purpose-developed evaluation tools. This paper describes a purpose-developed evaluation tool that uses the functional aspects of, and existing standards for, paper-based medical records in hospitals as its basis. The resulting EPR Standards are a tool which can be used to establish a benchmark against which to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of an electronic patient record.
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