EMR Compliance Report

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are an important component in health care reform, but do they really bring efficiency to the practice? The extent to which practices use EHRs vary from the very basic (entering clinical notes and viewing results) to the intermediate (using e-Prescribing to indicate adverse drug prevention and provide suggestions for alternative drugs) to the advanced use (including lab and radiology order entry with testing guidance, capture of electronic charge, and evidence-based guidelines).

An eMAR implementation is important for Meaningful use. Will you be working with an EHR system that is cloud based? Hunter (2011) explains that patient safety at the point of medication administration is significantly increased with the use of eMARs. The warnings, alerts, and parameter checks that are in place will facilitate a safer medication administration. Nurses will be reminded to check heart rate, lab results, and pain scales, ultimately helping the nurse to administer medications in a safer manner. The use of an eMAR will also improve medication administration by keeping an accurate schedule for administration by flagging medication that is due as well as prevent medications from being administered to patients that have allergies

EMR concerns are plaguing the health care industry today that requires change. Healthcare professionals, such as nurses, are on the front lines in the defense against medical errors. Closing the gap between current clinical and hospital practices and the various approaches to improving patient safety requires changes that are cultural and systemic in nature. The greatest challenge to hospitals using an EMR system is the expense of the new system, and the challenge nurses face with technology adoption in usage of EMR and protection of records. Even though spending depends on both the hospital size and the technologies were chosen, implementation and installation of a Health Information Technology system, which includes EMR, are often multi-year investments. The transition from a paper-based system to an electronic system is a very complicated process within every hospital establishment. The transformation is time-consuming and involves numerous staff from across the hospital, including Information Technology personnel, physicians, nurses, ancillary providers, etc. Although hospitals work hard at managing the changes required to move toward an electronic environment, there is no guarantee that hospital personnel will properly utilize the expensive new IT system or EMR. Therefore, the training in the EMR integration is required to all medical staff to have an efficient and uncomplicated system.

There’s no denying that EHR has advanced the quality of healthcare by improving the way information is accessed and exchanged. But despite these advancements, errors, which were simply not tolerated in paper records, are numerous in EHRs. Because of this, electronic documentation tools have been developed in an effort to increase the quality of clinical documentation, enhance communication between healthcare providers, and improve delivery of care.

There are inherent risk and benefits of hospitals utilizing electronic medical records. Three problems that could occur involve workflow, registration and drug interactions. The aforementioned are problems that spill over into the other because they are interrelated. This is caused by inconsistency among “disparate systems,” communication between departments and errors involving medication (Gartee, 2011, p. 183).

Therefore, several authors share some of the same ideas as to what some of the barriers faced during the transition to Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and if these barriers still exist once the transition to a full EHR system is complete. Herrick, et al., 2010, states that currently, there is no hard-core evidence to support the argument that Electronic Health Record (EHRs) and Health Information Technology is the best route for health organizations to prevent errors. In fact, the use of such technology could potentially lead to errors if information incorrectly entered in the system and Haupt, 2011, statement that smart software could help to prevent life-threatening errors better when administering medicines. Whereas, Boonstra & Broekhuis, 2010, states from a physician point a view need the understanding of the possible barriers that faced during implementation of EHRs because there a tremendous amount of literature on the obstacles but no suggestion on how to resolve these barriers have not been viewed. Barriers such as, financial on great startup and ongoing cost, technical and time to train staff and how much knowledge do they have with computer skills and psychological when support needed from vendors, etc. It suggests that once those barriers have been ironed out and a plan has set in place, then the transition from paper documentation to Electronic Health Records (EHRs) may go a lot easier for the healthcare arena physician, nurses and administrative

The quality depends on integrity, accuracy of health information, adoption of health information technology, and electronic medical records that would be vital in transforming the U.S health care system to one that is efficient and safer. Adoption of EMR has failed to achieve the benefit for which it was designed for, despite the promises of it improving quality of care and patient security. EMR errors results in data been lost or entered incorrectly, much efforts needs to be done to measure the occurrence of this errors determine the causes and get solutions.

The handwritten documentation has been the usual way of recording medical data since the nineteenth century. However, the fast development of computer technology has led to the advancement and use of electronic medical records (EMRs) throughout the past several decades (Jerant & Hill, 2000). The evolution from a paper to an electronic setting can be somewhat straightforward. The two leading reasons why most facilities chooses to convert to EMRs is patient care and safety. Health-care Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) presented its EMR adoption model in 2005 and now tracks the implementation growth of more than 5000 U.S hospitals (Traynor, 2011).

Adoption of EMR systems is significant for the delivery of consistent, high-quality and efficient healthcare. Research shows that EMR adoption rates vary by practice size. Physicians working in small practices are less likely to have EMR systems than those working in larger practices. In 2012, Ramaiah, Subrahmanian, Sriram, and Lide enunciated, “less than 11.3% of the small practices have fully implemented EMR systems.” I believe EMR adoption challenges are faced by both small medical practices and large healthcare systems but in a different way. Small medical practices face barriers primarily because of the lack of access to capital, lower ability to handle the productivity challenges created due to new EMR adoption (e.g. available EMR software does not meet the practice’s needs), lesser ability to choose a vendor and concerns about future obsolescence. Also, small practices may face some EMR quality issues. For example, the vendors may target larger practices and thus, sell lower quality EMR systems to small practice providers. Another key issue for small practices is the integration of EMR systems with practice management systems (Rao et al., 2011). On the contrary, large-scale healthcare systems are more concerned about the loss of productivity during the transition to EMRs, disruption in the physician’s workflow, security and privacy issues, safety and usability challenges, etc. In order to overcome the

At the beginning of the implementation, a survey for the clinicians will be created and sent to rate the satisfaction of the EMR system before the upgrade was made. The analytics module of the EMR system will be used to generate the average amount of time a clinician spends using the system during a patient's

The cost of implementing the systems, the people and the different designs that are available. A physician may face a different challenge from the nurses and other members of the care team or facility. When Implementing the EMR system to an entire organization, it takes time and resources to make this major change. The administrator begins by evaluating the status of the current practice, analyzing it in terms of the efficiency, and effectiveness of the EMR to the organization. (Schlotzer, A., & Madsen, M., 2010). It is also important to evaluate the current workflow to make sure it is well mapped out. The cost of Implementing a basic EHRs has increased from 17% in 2008 to 40% in 2012 with increased use of EMR. May practices can encounter challenges during and after implementation of EMR. These challenges need to be efficiently and effectively in order to achieve success. Implementation is costly and can break the budget to install an EHR whether it is on-site or Web-based. The cost is one of the reasons practices have not been able to purchase and implement the use of EMR. Most facilities partner with the same vendor that provides their practice management software because it is more economical. Some clinics are using the free EHR products to meet the needs of the practice. EMR development takes time, some

EMR systems are collections of digital records kept by health care facilities and affiliates such as hospitals, doctor's offices, and insurance companies (Lynn, 2011). They are also referred to as EHRs (electronic health records) - both names can be used interchangeably. The intention of the EMR system is to extend health information technology into the realm of patient record keeping and automated

Electronic health records (EHRs) are becoming more common among health care facilities every day. They are intended to increase both the quality and usefulness of documentation (AHIMA Work Group, 2013). There are many features that make EHRs user friendly and can decrease work time for clinicians. However, some of these same features, if not used properly, can cause a decrease in the integrity of the record. It is important that providers are aware of these risks and are educate on using the computerize records properly.

Systems Usability: The EMR System should not add any stress to its users. It is designed to positively impact patients’ volume, streamline workflow processes and more importantly enhance and safe patients’ care. All design features, functions and activities performed by EMRS provide reasonable assurance that physicians, pharmacists, clinical staff etc. will not be challenged by a lack of EMRS adaptability.

This article estimates the potential savings and costs of EMR systems application as well as the benefits of EMR usages. The authors summarize the methodologies that were used in their researches of the implementations of EMR and the associated cost, along with the increase in patient health outcomes. The article collected information primarily from the Dorenfest survey of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). The Dorenfest survey covered acute care hospitals, ambulatory cares, and chronic care facilities. The authors estimate that the EMR implementation would have great saving for inpatient and outpatient cares of $77 billion per year. The authors also mention that the reported saving would be received by the