Benefits And Implementation Of An Electronic Health Record

Health providers across America are using Electronic Health Records systems to keep up with patient’s health information. Long hours of filing and writing patients health information manually has become a thing of the past. The Electronic Health Record system, known as EHRs, has changed how patients and health providers communicate as a whole. It has taken information technology to a different spectrum, and has helped patients become more aware of their health history and health conditions. Throughout the years, EHRs systems have been crucially ridicule in the medical world, due to lack of knowledge, high expenses, and apprehension among health providers. Because there will always be challenges when new technology starts to expand in any type of establishment. I believe that EHRs serves a great purpose in health care despite its delays.

Electronic health records (EHR) are health records that are generated by health care professionals when a patient is seen at a medical facility such as a hospital, mental health clinic, or pharmacy. The EHR contains the same information as paper based medical records like demographics, medical complaints and prescriptions. There are so many more benefits to the EHR than paper based medical records. Accuracy of diagnosis, quality and convenience of patient care, and patient participation are a few examples of the

In 2004 president George Busch announced the goal to mandate electronic health records for every American by 2014. This would require every paper chart to be converted to electronic chart so that health care providers and the patient themselves can access their information through the internet (Simborg, 2011). The purpose of developing the EHR is to provide appropriate patient information from any location. Also to improve health care quality and the coordination of care among hospital staff. To reduce medical error, cost and advance medical care. Last to ensure patient health information is secure (DeSalvo, 2014) The Department of Health and Human Services appointed the Office of the National Coordinator for Health

An Electronic Health Record is a computerized form of a patient’s medical chart. These records allow information to be readily available to authorized providers during a patient’s encounter with the healthcare system. These systems do not only contain medical histories, current medications and insurance information, they also track patients’ diagnoses, treatment plans, immunization dates, allergies, radiology images and lab tests/results (source). The fundamental aspect of EHRs is that they are able to share a patient’s information quickly across service lines and even between different healthcare organizations. Information is at the fingertips of lab techs, primary care physicians, pharmacies, clinics, etc. The

Implementing EHR takes time and money but one can see a steady growth, more healthcare organizations and providers are now adopting electronic health records system. At present, two thirds of physicians are benifiting from utilizing the system, they are using the system to gain faster access to ptients information and give accurate diagnoses. In the future, the healthcare will be similar to social networking Silverman (2013) , patients will have access to their medical record which will enable them to share it with whom they want to and when they want to. It will also facilitate communication and help maintain physician and doctor relationship. In the future, healthcare professionals, patients, and sponsors of clinical trials will benefit from patients data collected in EHR, because such data will have been collected in the same efficient and regulatory manner. (eClinical Forum and phRMA EDC task force,

Now that we have a basic understanding of what an EHR system is let’s talk about some of the Pros and Cons of the system. There are many potential positives that this system can have. Research has shown that electronic health records have lowered the rate of medication mistakes by providing appropriate treatment guidelines. EHR's allow for quicker access to patient health records. Previously health records were pulled and refiled before and after each visit, often getting misfiled, making them frequently unavailable for appointments, resulting in wasted time, space, and the frequent detriment to care. The system increases the accuracy of coding and billing. The earlier protocol called for staff to enter data in two different places, for an increased rate of human error. The computerized physician order entry has an e-prescribe feature giving health professionals the ability to submit prescriptions online, making the process more efficient for the patient and provider. CPOE also gives providers the ability to place lab and imaging orders and other notices electronically. All of which dramatically reducing the margin for human error with handwritten orders. This also allows other providers with EHR to view orders and prescriptions, reducing the rate of duplication. Essentially the EHR’s main pro is its ability to promote efficiency, and productivity. The system itself is meant to save time spent writing charts to allow more time for patient interactions, all

Choosing to adopt the electronic health record (EHR) system requires planning and gaining knowledge about vendors in order to make an evidence-based decision before the selection and implementation process (Gleason, November/December 2014). It can eliminate the use of unnecessary technology and services that have created risk management and quality issues. With the EHR adoption, it can bring challenges and opportunities to existing processes by reducing costs and improving the efficiency for healthcare organizations like Bethany Place in order to inhere in operating more effectively in an effort of increasing the quality of care provided to the patient to achieve better medical outcomes (Cascardo, March/April 2014).

“An electronic health record (EHR) is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users.” (healthit.gov) The EHR mandate was created “to share information with other health care providers and organizations – such as laboratories, specialists, medical imaging facilities, pharmacies, emergency facilities, and school and workplace clinics – so they contain information from all clinicians involved in a patient’s care.” ("Providers & Professionals | HealthIT.gov", n.d., p. 1) The process has proved to be quite challenging for providers. As an

Traditional patient health records are primarily paper based and all documentation is handwritten. Electronic health records (EHR), as reported by Shi and Singh “are IT applications that enable the processing of any electronically stored information pertaining to individual patients for the purpose of delivering health care services” (p. 161). EHR systems replace the traditional format of medical records. All important data such as a patient’s demographics, problems and diagnostics, plan of care, progress notes medications, vital signs, and past medical history are electronically entered and accessed by

The Electronic Health Record (EHR) is a comprehensive electronic record of patient health information (PHI) eventuated by one or more encounters in any care delivery setting. This longitudinal information includes, demographics, vital signs, past medical history, progress notes, problems, medications, immunizations, radiology data and laboratory reports. The EHR organizes and automates the clinician 's workflow. The EHR has the ability to create a complete record of a clinical patient encounter - as well as complementary other care-related activities directly or indirectly via interface – encompassing evidence-based decision support, outcomes reporting and quality management("Electronic Health Records(Standards),"). Health

The ability to share patients’ health records with other providers have become the norm with EHRs, while paper-based medical records have become a thing of the past. Not only are paper records a thing of the past, they took up a lot of space and providers had to keep patient’s information on file for at least 6 years due to health care regulations. Furthermore, access to EHRs are unlimited and providers have access to information immediately. No more looking for a chart to add clinical information to it.

In the age of technology, digital data is king. The movement to an electronic health record (EHR) has been going on for years, but recently it is picking up steam. As professionals in the field become more proficient and knowledgeable about EHRs, the benefits will only increase. The 2011 Physician Workflow study by King, Patel, Jamoom, and Furukawa found that “most physicians with EHRs reported EHR use enhanced patient care overall (78 percent), helped them access a patient’s chart remotely (81 percent), and alerted them to a potential medication error (65 percent)” (King, Patel, Jamoom, & Furukawa, 2014). In this study, physicians with two or more years of experience with EHRs rated the benefits even higher.

Electronic health records replace the paper patient charts typically used during most care provider visits. [3] As more providers adopt EHR

It is important to understand that patients are very satisfied with electronic health systems. For example, patients see a vast improvement in the speed at which they are being seen when they go their doctors’ office. Patients no longer have to wait on their physicians for hours due to the fact that their information can be readily available to their physicians when they come to see them. Moreover, all their information is transparent to their health care provider since all their data is in electronic form.

Electronic health records (EHR’s) have many advantages, but there are plenty of disadvantages. EHR’s were created to manage the many aspects of healthcare information. Medical professionals use them daily and most would feel lost without it. Healthcare organizations were encouraged to adopt EHR’s in 2009 due to the fact that a bill passed known as The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act). “The HITECH Act outlines criteria to achieve “meaningful use” of certified electronic records. These criteria must be met in order for providers to receive financial incentives to promote adoption of EHRs as an integral part of their daily practice”, (Conrad, Hanson, Hasenau & Stocker-Schneider, 2012).