Final answer:
The transition to electronic health records has increased efficiency, improved healthcare coordination, reduced administrative costs, and supported the standardized mass-produced models of care. The Affordable Care Act has mandated this switch to help control healthcare costs. It has also introduced challenges in privacy that need to be addressed through careful policymaking.
Step-by-step explanation:
Technology has dramatically transformed healthcare, especially with the transition from paper documentation to electronic health records (EHRs). The benefits of this shift include improved efficiency, better coordination among healthcare providers, and a reduction in administrative costs. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has enforced this change by imposing regulations that cap administrative spending and mandate the use of EHRs to control skyrocketing healthcare expenses.
Additionally, the move to EHRs facilitates sharing digital records among providers, which can improve the quality of care while simultaneously reducing costs. However, this introduces privacy concerns that policies must address to balance treatment costs, patient quality of life, and individual privacy risks. With healthcare trending towards high demand due to an aging population, adopting EHRs can contribute to more standardized and mass-produced models of care, which include telemedicine and artificial intelligence to meet service demands efficiently.