Helping the Little Man: Electronic Health Records in Small PracticesSince small practices provide care to the majority of the population in the United States, according to Begum et al. (2013), it is important to set goals to improve your resources in healthcare delivery. This paper will delve into the state of electronic health records (EHRs) in small non-hospital settings, as well as policies that can help alleviate current burdens. First, the definition and purpose of electronic health records must be defined. It is a system of computerized medical records that can be conveniently updated and consulted instantly by authorized personnel. This system is a valuable resource because it improves patient information consolidation, clarity, organization, collection and, above all, communication. Second, the small medical practice, as stated by Goetz Goldberg, Kuzel, Feng, DeShazo, and Love (2012), is defined as an institution that has no more than 10 physicians in its workforce. In the study, “Electronic Health Records in Physicians' Small Practices: Availability, Use, and Perceived Benefits,” Rao et al. (2011) conducted observations on the variation in adoption, barriers, and perceived benefits of electronic health records across various dimensions of medical practices. The study concludes that smaller practices have lower rates of adoption of electronic health records and that, if implemented, they would be less likely to be used to their full potential. Furthermore, they note that such institutions continue to face financial and technical support challenges, and the most common theory that most policymakers have in terms of the main burdens they face include: lack of access to funds; implementation complications; to manage… half the paper… healthcare practices are less expected to adopt EHRs and that the majority of these practices with EHR systems do not meet the basic standards for meaningful use. This particular issue is important to address because nationally, small practices are where most people get care and where most doctors work. Given this statistic, it is imperative to not only concentrate monetary and technical resources on larger healthcare institutions, but also distribute aid to the “little man”. With the more prominent and popular healthcare image of large general hospitals and its many large supporting companies, and despite the policies and regulations in place to support medical practices with no more than 10 providers, small medical practices do not should be left behind in terms of improving its resources, such as the implementation, maintenance and improvement of electronic health records.