Double Checking Errors

The electronic health record (EHR) is a digital record of a patient’s health history that may be made up of records from many locations and/or sources, such as hospitals, providers, clinics, and public health agencies. The EHR is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and has built-in safeguards to assure patient health information confidentiality and security. (Huston, 2013)

Use of an EHR presents major opportunities for the compromise of patient’s personal health information (PHI). The facility must ensure proper safe guards are implemented and functioning properly at all times. Employees need to be educated on the safety measures to prevent breach of patient confidential health records. Privacy breaches can result from misuse or improper storage of PHI by the healthcare professional, by third party payers, or by lack of proper encryption in the EHR system itself (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2014). The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a law that holds healthcare facilities and professionals accountable for keeping PHI confidential, patients to control

Although the EHR is still in a transitional state, this major shift that electronic medical records are taking is bringing many concerns to the table. Two concerns at the top of the list are privacy and standardization issues. In 1996, U.S. Congress enacted a non-for-profit organization called Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This law establishes national standards for privacy and security of health information. HIPAA deals with information standards, data integrity, confidentiality, accessing and handling your medical information. They also were designed to guarantee transferred information be protected from one facility to the next (Meridan, 2007). But even with the HIPAA privacy rules, they too have their shortcomings. HIPAA can’t fully safeguard the limitations of who’s accessible to your information. A short stay at your local

The ER physician and the nurse were able to successfully navigate themselves through Mr. Head Injury’s electronic health information because they were competent EHR users. The physician and the nurse were knowledgeable about how the EHR functioned and what type of information could be found in its use. All team members involved in direct patient care need to know how to search essential patient information, how to add/update health records, and they need to be skillful in the use of the EHR system. Most importantly, EHR users need to know how to seek assistance if they come across an unprecedented issue or error with the informational system.

The purpose of this paper is to review and summarize the literature on the pros and cons of electronic health record systems. This paper describes the many benefits of electronic health record systems, which include but are not limited to, less paperwork, increased quality of care, financial incentives, and increased efficiency and productivity. Organizational outcomes and societal benefits are also addressed. Despite the tremendous amount of benefits, studies in the literature highlight potential disadvantages of electronic health record systems. These disadvantages include privacy and security concerns, identity theft, data loss, financial issues, and changes in workflow, involving a temporary loss of productivity. Preventative measures that can be taken are addressed as well. Overall, people believe that the benefits of electronic health records can be realized when they are used correctly, and proper measures are taken to reduce any potential drawbacks.

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

It is hard to take a snapshot of the current technology used in healthcare as tomorrow a new innovative idea is right around the corner. A major change that has occurred over time comes from the use of electronic health records (EHR). Electronic health records usage has been on the rise for several years. It has been used by physicians, ambulatory staff, and HMOs. Since data can be easily altered the copies that must be certified for any medical provider to reference. There is a criterion for the composition of this data due to the exchanging of patient information within an interoperable medical

The federal government established a nationwide health information technology (HIT) infrastructure which requires all health care facility personnel to use an electronic health record (EHR). According to Sewell & Thede, in 2004, President Bush called for adoption of interoperable electronic health records for most Americans by 2014. Electronic health records (EHR) is an automated system created by healthcare providers or organizations, such as a hospital in documenting patient care. In addition, EHR is an interoperable healthcare record that can comprise of multiple EMRs data and the personal health record (PHR). Furthermore, electronic health records can be created, managed, and accessed by approved clinicians and staff across more than one health care society (Sewell & Thede, 2013, p. 231-232). On the patients’ perspective, EHR will be used to support healthcare by providing electronic record of patients’ vital signs, demographics, allergies, medications, diagnoses, and smoking status. Consequently, on the providers’ perspective, EHR will support healthcare by use of decision support tools, enter clinical orders, such as prescriptions, provide patients with electronic versions of their health information, use systems that protect the privacy and security of HER patient data. Another meaningful use of EHR is to support activities such as conducting drug formulary checks, including clinical laboratory test results, recording advance directions for patient 65 years and

It is necessary to be attentive in entering data elements that you may not have a clear relationship to the work you are doing because any error that you make could end up hurting the company you work for or even threaten your job. On page twenty the reading assignment states that third party organizations set standards for healthcare providers to use when measuring the quality and cost of services they provide to their patients. I personally believe that it does not only make your company look bad if you enter wrong information on someone’s EHR because you are not familiar with the work that your company has you doing, but it also causes liability between the company and the patients rights. The reading also states on page twenty that the

EHR can reduce the risk of medical errors and eliminates the hassle and hazard of lost or erroneous data caused by transcription mistakes.

Collaboration and communication between patient’s, their physicians and the health care team are required in order to preserve the safety of the patient. Improper use of EHR can produce errors that may possibly threaten the reliability of the information in the EHR which may endanger patient’s safety thus decreasing the quality of care. Healthcare quality relies on the accuracy and integrity of the patient’s health information. One manner EHR accuracy may be-threatened is because of the growth of members of the healthcare team copying and pasting text documentation. The copy and paste process poses a risk to the integrity of nursing documentation. Risk such as, redundant documentation, outdated documentation, and inability to identify when

Although electronic health record (EHR) systems many healthcare organizations, are turning to the electronic health record (EHR), there are are potential and actual disadvantages of the system. Disadvantages of the EHR includes financial issues, changes in workflow, temporary loss of productivity associated with EHR system, privacy and security concerns, as well as several unplanned consequences (Menachemi & Collum, 2011).

Information overload is a significant liability that a majority of the clinicians, working in the healthcare facilities within the United States of America, face. Due to the fact that the adoption of the EHR leads to the storage of virtually large amounts of data concerning patients; it is difficult for the clinicians to review all the relevant health information of the patients in a limited timeframe. In this case, a legal suite may ensue in the event that a clinician omits some crucial information relevant for treatment while reviewing records for a patient. The clinician could be sued for negligence with the understanding that the information was at his/her disposal (Blumenthal & Tavenner, 2013).

“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

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).