Biomark Health Case Study

One of the issues with the electronic systems in health care for MU is the ability to retrieve laboratory results during a patient’s visit. In 2013, Hinrichs and Zarcone reveal that over 70% of medical decisions are determined by laboratory results. In 2007, AU Health implemented Cerner Millennium PowerChart that displays clinical data to improve the point of care for patients. With the PowerChart solution, the patient’s information can be easily verified, vital signs can be entered, and family history can be updated. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) signed by President Obama in 2013 places emphasis on expanding insurance coverage of medical care for everyone. As part of the ACA, the improvements in the way these results are exchanged and transmitted will add value to quality, safety, efficiency of health information (Hinrichs & Zarcone, 2013). The transmission and availability of EHR affect how other health professionals send and receive information at the local, state, and national levels.

Our one hundred bed hospital is in need of updating from paper charting to computerized health records. In doing this, we will meet our goal of compliance with meaningful use legislation. We assembled a team of members to assist with this task and together we have narrowed the search to two health care systems. Those two systems are EPIC and Meditech and we will now discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each, with a final recommendation for our new healthcare system.

These systems will also help cut down on medication errors by comparing the patient’s to medications or interventions so that it is given to the correct patient. Also documents the care given so there would be no human error in the case of questioning whether care had been given as long as the caregiver documents in the record. These features of the electronic health record are in place to promote patient safety by reducing errors.

Health information technology or HIT is a huge part of the dashing changes in how medications are prescribed, dispensed, and administered by using technologies electronic devices to share and manage patient information, instead of doing it the old fashion way which was over the phone, having all patients’ records and files on paper, and using the old fax method. Everything is computerized, from managing the

This system has proven success in working with hospitals of this size. The hospital already utilizes many pieces of patient equipment which have platforms which interface easily with the Cerner®. This will allow the nursing, pharmacy, physician and respiratory care staff to pull patient care data from the devices into the on line documentation forms. Cerner® is certified for meaningful use.

The technology product will be used as onboarding training for new PAS and as refresher on competencies for experienced PAS. The the content will include lessons on all electronic health record platforms and resources that are used in researching medications and compiling the PTA medication list for use in reconciliation. Team member orientation also involves learning the process of completing the PAS standard work. This work includes monitoring patient lists, interviewing patients or other knowledgeable individuals about the medication taken by the patient, verifying the infomation with the pharmacy, primary physician, insurance company, etc., and updating the patient chart to reflect the information. Time management and documentation are also included.

Throughout this report, the interoperability and communication between departments will be discussed in detail, in order to improve throughput using the current software system, Epic in this case. The goal is optimal patient outcomes using electronic prescribing. A solution will be reviewed utilizing Epic, a standard electronic health record (EHR) involving the HL7 initiatives.

Cerner integrates patient information throughout all of the departments within a hospital setting. This program also has the ability to expand into other health care facilities within a community, such as long term care, hospice, and home health (Cerner, 2015). Cerner offers community hospitals solutions in their “Software as a Service” model. Cerner will host the software program, provide upgrades, and monitor performance to ensure stability. This will allow community hospitals to have a predictable cost for the software (Cerner, 2015). Another advantage of this system is the “Smart Room”. Wireless devices such as infusion pumps, and vital sign monitoring devices can access the system. This allows for instant documentation of this information into a patient chart and will alert if abnormalities are noted. Bar code scanners and carts are available as well. These items improve patient safety (Cerner, 2015). Cerner is capable of CPOE, electronic prescription transmitting, and has the ability to capture data and immunization statuses to meet reporting regulations.

This goal is a person centric healthcare which is grounded in the idea that an individual should be able to “securely access, control, amend and make other choices regarding the use and disclosure of their electronic individually identifiable health information”. I think this goal will be needing further development and time.

Meaningful use is defined as using certified electronic health record (EHR) technology. It is important to healthcare because of the following; quality, safety and efficiency which reduces health disparities by having computerized physician order entry (CPOE) to document all medical orders that other health care providers inside and outside the hospital to be aware of health management. Maintaining an active medication lists ensuring that any health care provider working with a patient is aware of most or all the medications that a patient is being treated with, and allows the EHR system to make the health care provider aware of any controlled medications, allergies, or drug-drug interactions. Implementation of clinical decision support rules

The first group that will incorporate the new CM technology into day-to-day work is the State's Vermont Chronic Care Initiative (VCCI) - a statewide team working to provide intensive care management to high-risk/high-cost Medicaid members. They comprise the primary group of end-users for Release 1, and this document provides evidence of their learning and readiness to use the CM system after R1 Final deployment.

In observation, (Fahnestock, McComb, & Deshmukh, 2013) stated "Information technologies are transforming the way healthcare is delivered. Innovations such as computer-based patient records, hospital information systems, computer-based decision support tools, community health information networks and new ways of distributing health information.” (p.3.2). In the sector of delivering healthcare using technology, has made it easier for healthcare professionals to access medical records, digitization of prescriptions and view test results. With the use of high-performance devices being used in the hospital, helps to make the jobs of healthcare professionals a little easier. As well as relieve anxiety from anxious patients that may be awaiting lab results to come back. Therefore, IT devices and services has been and continues to be a tremendous help and game changer for the healthcare system. However, there is still a lot of work to be done to help shape and reform the healthcare

Sophisticated electronic records and computer systems for tracking patient care is another important attribute of Kaiser. Since five years, Kaiser is using the electronic information to identify and evaluate providers’ strengths and weaknesses in order to improve the quality of care (Abelson, 2013). The organization also uses the electronic records to improve its care delivery, e.g. by identifying at-risk patients and establishing alert and reminder systems for quick and timely care

Electronic medical records had a great impact in the ushering in of the age of Nursing Informatics. (Himss, 2010)EMRS present healthcare professionals with the ability to retrieve and organize data in a quick and efficient approach. With information so readily available, patient safety increases and we know that patient cost goes down. This happens because patient medications, allergies, history, demographic, and treatment information is more collectively available.

Biomarkers are referred to as a measurement of a biological sample, are a very useful piece of information that is obtained in order to predict a patient’s disease state, (Eapen, Ghasemzadeh, MacNamara, & Quyyumi, 2014). Eapen et al. (2014) also states that biomarkers are used for three general purposes, those being; screening, diagnosis and prognosis. The “ideal” biomarker will fluctuate with the state of the disease, meaning that if the disease worsens or improves the biomarker will increase or decrease respectively (Eapen et al., 2014). Eapen et al., (2014) quotes