The Committee on Improving the Patient Record, Division of Health Care Services, Institute of Medicine, in a book titled “The Computer-Based Patient Record” identified 12 attributes that comprehensive computer-based patient records and record systems must possess.

EMRitus includes all 12 identified attributes, some of which are as follows:

• The CPR contains a problem list that clearly delineates the patient’s clinical problems and the current status of each
• The CPR encourages and supports the systematic measurement and recording of the patient’s health status and functional level to promote more precise and routine assessment of the outcomes of patient care
• The CPR states the logical basis for all diagnoses or conclusions as a means of documenting the clinical rationale for decisions about the management of the patient’s care
• The CPR can be linked with other clinical records of a patient – from various settings and time periods – to provide a longitudinal (i.e., lifelong) record of events that may have influenced a person’s health.
• The CPR is accessible for use in a timely way at any and all times authorized by individuals involved in direct patient care.
• The CPR can assist and, in some instances, guide the process of clinical problem solving by providing clinicians with decision analysis tools, clinical reminders, prognostic risk assessment, and other clinical aids.
• The CPR supports structured data collection and stores information using a defined vocabulary. It adequately supports direct data entry by practitioners.
• The CPR can help individual practitioners and health care provider institutions manage and evaluate the quality and costs of care
• The CPR is sufficiently flexible and expandable to support not only today’s basic information needs, but also the evolving needs of each clinical specialty and subspecialty.