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The Emergency Responder Electronic Health Record (ER-EHR) is a specific electronic form designed for first responders and other emergency care personnel who assist in natural disasters and other widespread disasters such as bio-terrorism attacks in the U.S.
The IT surrounding these records has been developed through the Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness (OPHEP). ER-EHR provides the standards required to allow emergency personnel, medical examiners, fatality managers and public health practitioners to keep track of information about the treatment, care or other investigation of emergency incident victims.
A key feature of this standard is its interoperability between the systems of the various organizations involved in ER-EHR.
The standard has definition and structure for the exchange of information on local, regional and national scale emergencies and covers on-site, emergency and definitive care.
After Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005, emergency health care givers and others recognized a tremendous need for electronic emergency health records and systems. Not only have EHRs been mandated through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, but ER-EHRs are imperative and even more urgent than other EHR development designed to promote health information exchange (HIE). In fact, federal laws dictate that ER-EHR systems be developed much quicker than other types of EHRs.
Private IT personnel are needed to mainstream ER-EHRs to expedite HIE. Federal standards, grants and incentives are being put into place to educate and hire IT personnel to help create innovative and efficient ER-EHRs, standards, platforms and networks for this growing field. Included in these standards and developments should be ways in which to recover electronic data within a disaster recovery plan.