A Brief Note On Bar Code Technology On A New Electronic Health Record System

In our society today, we have a broad range of computer technology for our use. This technology in the nursing field is called informatics. Informatics is defined as a combination of computer science, information science, and nursing science designed to assist in the management and processing of nursing data, information, and the knowledge to support the practice of nursing and the delivery of nursing care (Thede, 1). Nearly anywhere we go, and whatever career we choose we all need to have basic computer skills. Computers are used in the health care profession due to an increase of productivity they can provide, therefore allowing for better patient care. Computers also allow for hospitals, doctor’s offices, and other healthcare facilities to change over to and begin keeping electronic medical records (EMR). An EMR has the medical information that the doctors and nurses obtain when you have an office visit. The patient’s paper medical record is put into an EMR program is basically made into a digital version of that patient’s medical information. The patient’s healthcare provider can then use these EMRs for diagnoses and treatment. There can be advantages and disadvantages for healthcare providers to transition to an EMR system, and those providers will have to decide which one will outweigh the other.

Health information technology (HIT) applies to health care and is used to securely exchange health information between providers, consumers, and payers. Electronic Health Records (EHRs) is used for improving the quality, safety and efficiency of the health system. The use of EHR provides better care and decreases healthcare cost. A poorly designed and improper use EHR system can lead to errors affecting the integrity of information leading to lower quality of attention. HIT, including EHRs, is critical in the transformation of the healthcare system into an efficient, safer, cost effective and consistently delivers high-quality care. HIT and EHR include electronic prescribing and clinical decision support. EHR systems transform the delivery of healthcare. (Chaudhry, B. Wang, J., & Wu, S. et al., 2006).

Improved patient safety is the most essential advantage of the BCMA system. “On average a hospital patient is subjected to at least one medication error per day (IOM, 2006)”(Foote). BCMA significantly reduces medication errors that cause a compromise in patient safety. The BCMA verifies the five rights of medication administration before a patient receives a medication by the software alerting the nurse if there is a contraindication between the medicine scanned and the patient’s orders. A pilot study conducted at a 300-bed community hospital found that the BCMA system reduced medication errors by 80% (Foote). Fowler et al states that “decrease in errors related to the wrong patient was a direct result of the bar code system (Fowler).”

The healthcare industry has evolved in the technology age from medical devices and advanced surgeries to the implementation of ICD-10 and the electronic health record. Progression is not only inevitable for the healthcare industry but also for society as a whole. This drives the expectation of increased workflow to ensure continuum of care is being met. A major concern that the Health Information Management (HIM) industry facing is the wrongful clinical documentation which contributes to coding errors. This causes rejected claims and inaccurate statistics which can affect a facility’s revenue and morale. With the ICD-10 transition here, there is an expectation of high standards in processing medical records while enduring the massive amount of workload that comes along with thousands of new codes. Fortunately, with technology by our side one can now utilize resources that aid in achieving the status quo and beyond. One of those resources is Computer Assisted Coding software.

Many if not all healthcare systems are transferring paper-based record systems to electronic systems (Rezaeibagha, F., Win, T K., Susilo, W., 2015). Electronic health record systems or EHR are providing a better quality of services to patients in health care settings. In US, there is an estimation of 1.5 million patients harmed due too medication errors, yearly, with an estimation of 400,000 adverse events that could have been prevented (Agrawal, A. 2009). IT system based electronic health records are being implemented to improve access to information, while organizing the information, and linking it together for perfect patient outcomes. Often times

The safety of the patient is very crucial when caring for patients and the community. The use of informatics would improve Patient safety, such as the use of medication barcode administration, (BCMA), and Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) are few informatics implementations that would help with patient safety in the healthcare system (Sewell, 2015) Cost is another driving force towards the use of informatics. With the cost of health at its highest, consumers and employers would use informatics to access the quality of care, compare prices and also compare providers. Medical errors in healthcare setting cost a hugged amount of money. “Electronically prescribed drugs are more legible, thus making it less likely that drugs would be wrongly administered to patients (Chih-Piing et al, 2016)”.The use of informatics will help reduce some of this error which would save the government, hospital, and consumers from extremely high

Health informatics has successfully captured the attention of clinical and public health leaders around the nation as they realize its potential to solve problems, cut cost and enhance patient experience. As discussed in class, The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) of 2009 initiated a program designed to equip hospitals and medical practices around the country with electronic health record systems. Known as the Meaningful Use program, it has provided financial encouragements to health care organizations to install these computerized systems. This act has resulted in a huge increase of electronic health records (EHR) companies and has generated countless jobs for healthcare data analysts and related IT positions.

The concept of electronic health records (EHR) was introduced in 2004 (Sheridan, 2012), and in the 13 years that have since followed hospitals across the United States have adopted computer charting systems. As of 2015, 96% of hospitals in this country are using electronic health records systems (Conn, 2016). It is important for facilities to maintain safe and secure computerized charting to better care for patients and to protect and exchange medical information.

The planned intervention in this study is to implement the barcodes medication system and evaluation the medication error rates, pre and post implementation. Observational nurses for the study will shadowed staff nurses on the units for 4 hours and, without knowing the physician's medication orders, recorded details about the medications being administered to patients (Poon et al., 2010). Implementing the BCMA system makes it conceivable for healthcare professionals to manage the patients through secure use, along with sharing of patient’s health care information (Health IT, 2014). The barcode medication system provides additional safety measure for patients and staff, while reducing error

Healthcare system have undergone a rapid transformation over the past 50 years. An Electronic health record (EHR) allows healthcare providers to record patient information electronically instead of using paper records; a user of an Electronic Health Record System describes it benefits: One of the first physicians in the country to be certified as a meaningful user of health information technology says the electronic health record system she implemented has significantly improved her performance on measures of clinical quality by providing immediate feedback on her adherence to evidence-based standards of care. The system has also reduced the administrative burden on physician and staff, resulting in increased productivity and income for

There are currently many technological impacts happening in the field of healthcare. While there are many and extremely valuable changes being implemented in medical facilities, one of the biggest changes is the transitioning from paper charts to electronic health records. Over the past few years and most recently, medical facilities have done their best to improve the EHR implementation so that they are comfortable with how information is being entered into the system as well as how it is accessed in a new location.

Health information technology (IT) is a great entity in many ways. It has provided an easier way for nurses and physicians to access healthcare records, provides a quick one-click system to view test results with all this information available with the press of a button, and can prevent medication administration errors by utilizing the electronic medication administration record (eMAR). But with this technology and ingenuity comes a string of issues and problems that may arise in the electronic health record (EHR) programs. For this discussion board the Journal by Wallace et al. (2013) will be used to, identify and define the two types of IT-related incidents, describe the type of IT incidents in the case study, the potential consequences

The second study focused on a patient care unit, which include 2 medical-surgical units, 2 telemetry units, 2 rehabilitation units, and a medical-surgical intensive care unit, and Oncology unit (Seibert et al., 2014). This is a pre and posttest non-equivalent comparison group study that focused on the medication administration accuracy error rates at a community based hospital. The units were observed and recorded at one month, six months, and 12 months after the electronic barcode medication administration system as implemented. According to Seibert et al., 2014), medication catastrophes attribute to errors in medication administration ranges from 2.4% to 1.1%, and can elevate to 34-49%. Although direct observation is a “standard” tool used in identifying medication errors, other modality such as computerized monitoring, chart reviews is also utilized (Seibert et al., 2014).

In professional nursing, informatics plays a critical role in how nurses access, enter, manage and store key knowledge essential for professional practice and client care. (Hood, 2014) The use of Electronic Medical Record plays a very important role in my nursing practice. One of the major benefits of using the EMR is its checks and balances when it comes to medication administration. Before I give any medication I have to scan the medication first, and then if there is any discrepancy, there will be an alert citing the error that had occurred. The use of EMRs can avert potential medical errors and the loss of life.

This paper will identify the use of Electronic Health Records and how nursing plays an important role. Emerging in the early 2000’s, utilizing Electronic Health Records have quickly become a part of normal practice. An EHR could help prevent dangerous medical mistakes, decrease in medical costs, and an overall improvement in medical care. Patients are often taking multiple medications, forget to mention important procedures/diagnoses to providers, and at times fail to follow up with providers. Maintaining an EHR could help tack data, identify patients who are due for preventative screenings and visits, monitor VS, & improve overall quality of care in a practice. Nurse informaticists play an important role in the