Cloud Computing Of Health Care Industry

Over the past few years, we have notice a significant change in the workflow of a healthcare organization. This change is caused by the technological advancements of Health Information Technology (HIT). One of the many technological advancements of HIT is the Electronic Health Record (EHR). Electronic health records are a patient’s paper chart in a digital format. It always contains real time information and can be easily accessible. With EHR put into act, it has the ability to electronically view and share a patient’s medical history, past and current medications, immunization dates, any diagnoses or allergies, as well as testing and lab reports. It is also used to document and store data, in addition with many more abilities. It is important to understand the purpose, application, challenges, and advantages of an electronic heath record. In order to get a greater understanding of its use, we will use a private family medicine practice as the foundation for implementing the EHR.

The high cost of healthcare continues to rise and many in the United States are optimistic for health information technology to reduce and improve our current situation. Health IT encompasses a broad array of new technologies designed to manage and share health-related information. When properly implemented, these systems can help coordinate patient care, reduce medical errors, and improve administrative efficiency. Therefore, implementing a Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) will help the National Health Information Network (NHIN) achieve their goals in improving quality of care for the citizens of the United States. Thus, in order for the health IT to deliver on its promise, several obstacles must be overcome.

The health information system being selected is QuaDramed and the hypothetical health care organization selected is rural hospital. QuaDraMed EHR solution provides the accurate, reliable foundation organizations need to link and manage patient records across disparate Information technology (IT) systems in rural hospital. By leveraging the powerful capabilities of QuaDramed’s EHR technology and PatientSecure, organizations can better patient safety and satisfaction, protect patients from medical identity theft, and minimize the risk of insurance card fraud. Organizations can also reduce duplicate healthcare records and overlays in the EHR leading to immediate cost and time saving (QuadraMed Corporation, 2015).

The main reason institutions are switching to the new technology of exchanging health information is specifically to reduce costs and help improve health care quality. In this case study that is what San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center wanted exactly, to effortlessly exchange patient’s medical information. San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center which is a rural hospital in Alamosa Colorado is one of the many hospitals and providers that can benefit from this change. In 2004 AHRQ signed a contract to the University of Colorado Health and sciences Center, which later on developed a point-of-care inquiry system for four healthcare organizations in the Denver region. The system allowed emergency room clinicians within the four locations to exchange medical data. They were able to sufficiently and rapidly retrieve and send patient medical histories, x-rays, medication lists, and all problem lists. The AHRQ contract also help started the development of the

When it comes to healthcare there are a lot of things that have evolved. One in particular is that of the patients’ health care records and how they are written as well as being stored. In this paper I will be discussing the evolution of this process via the Health Information Exchange or HIE. This will involve the history of the system, problems that are involved in this evolution, as well as the security issues that will need to be addressed when moving from different types of records.

While many people believe that health information exchange is a relatively new thing, it has been around for over four decades. However, in the beginning phases it was nowhere near as complex as it is now. Sometime in the middle of the 60’s, an early form of a data processing system was formed and it focuses on clinical data management. This system began to catch on even though they were nowhere near as sophisticated and or functional as the health records in today’s time.

Combined with data analytics, aggregate-level EHR enable examination and development of effective medicines and therapies for chronic diseases (Kohli & Tan, 2016). There are several forces that are driving many of the changes to the EHR including health and safety concerns with the number of preventable deaths from medical errors , a changing society, the internet, with an increasing amount of mobile patients, as well as government response (Gartee, 2011) The response to the IOM report was swift and positive, within both the government and private sectors (Gartee, 2011). The government responded with establishing a position of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to “develop, maintain, and direct the implementation of a strategic plan to guide the nationwide implementation of interoperable health information technology in both the public and private health care sectors that will reduce medical errors, improve quality, and produce greater value for health care expenditures (Gartee,

            For many years medical records have been amassed and stored electronically in databases that have grown, have been linked, and have been extended to include different types of medical information from many sources.  The fact that we can now use one database to procure personal information from sources such as hospitals, HMOs, and drug companies has led to countless benefits. Any type of medical information relevant to a given treatment can theoretically become available through a seamlessly accessed electronic network.  If an elderly person arrived in the emergency room with symptoms of a stroke, an emergency room doctor could check the patient's current medications before treating them to prevent harmful drug interactions.  Similarly, an extreme skier who travels the world and has broken his leg in Alaska would have the peace of mind to know that a doctor could find and access critical information such as

One of the challenges would be advances in healthcare technology - there are evidences of Difficulties in implementation of cross-continuum electronic health records, which are mostly attributed to the lack of resources. With the newer reimbursement model, it is essential for an integrated network to have a vast network of information. It should be able to collect, maintain and provide applicable access to administrative, clinical and financial data in order to supervise quality and costs while providing patient-centered care.

Cloud computing-based medical records management is making it possible for hospitals and treatment centers to have a single, unified system of record for their current and past patient population (Corredor, Martínez, Familiar, 2011). This has drastically reduced duplication of records management systems, minimized reporting and billing errors, and created a highly effective platform for patient-based analytics (Martin, Yen, Tan, 2002). The insights and intelligence gained from the analytics driven from patient systems is also making it possible for healthcare providers to better redefine process workflows, making hospital operations more cost-effective. The combining of cloud computing platforms and telemedicine is streamlining the treatment plans for

Digital technology has transformed our world. Smart phones, tablets and web based devices changed our daily lives and the way we communicate. Within digital healthcare infrastructure, creation of Electronic Health Records (EHR) transformed the way care is delivered and compensated. EHR is the digital version of a patients paper chart. EHRs are the real time, patient centered information available for authorized health care providers. Through EHR, health information can be created, managed and shared between providers. EHRs can share the information between providers and organization, so that they comprise information from all clinician involved in a patients care (Aziz & Alsharabasi, 2015). EHR includes many potential capabilities, but three

Interoperability is so important to physicians and patients, so that one can have better patient care were ever one may choose to go. For American to have access to their electronic health information is dependent on the interoperability of several computers. It will be wonderful when providers have the effortless ability to securely access

The future of interoperability has a twofold bearing. Positively, “the seamless exchange of information would improve care, increase operational efficiency and lower costs” (n d, 2017). Interoperability would facilitate care coordination along the continuum of care, enable informatics and advanced analytics within the health sector, (n d, 2017). Negatively, in 2015, the Health Information Technology Policy Committee in its report to Congress, cited the most notable barriers to interoperability as “lack of universal adoption of standard-based EHR systems, complex privacy and security challenges associated with widespread health information exchange and lack of incentive to develop interoperability in the private sector”, (Patil, 2016). To realize

Ninety two year old Samuel Rados was on dialysis, two knee replacements and two stunts. His wife carries a briefcase detailing all his procedures and medications with her at all times. While undergoing a MRI scan he suddenly developed arrhythmia but fortunately revived with emergency care. Mr. Rados had a pacemaker implanted which was missing in his medical docu-mentation. Had Mr. Rados’s nephrologist had access to his medical records from all of his spe-cialists, this potentially fatal mistake could have been avoided. These two examples of potentially serious medical oversights could have been prevented with the use of interoperable electronic medical information. From a macro-economic perspective, over the last century a number of new technologies and innovations have yielded a dramatic change in the way health care is delivered to the end users. Information and communication technologies have become the catalyst in providing efficient and effective delivery of health care services. Currently americans spend more resources on health care than any other industrialized nation. In the past few decades, while every sector of the American economy has embraced computer and information technology to increase productiv-ity and reduce costs, the health care system has failed to remedy this lingering frailty. At the mo-ment while most current computer systems are being mainly used for managerial and accounting purposes, there should be a growing effort to make a design for usable

Currently, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) announced their vision for attaining national interoperability in the Health IT infrastructure. Claiming that “achieving this goal will only be possible with a strong, flexible health IT ecosystem that can appropriately support transparency and decision-making, reduce redundancy, inform payment reform, and help to transform care into a model that enhances access and truly addresses health beyond the confines of the health care system.” (“A 10-Year Vision to Achieve an Interoperable Health IT Infrastructure,” n.d.)