Electronic Health Records: A Case Study

In a healthcare world that operates on stringent budgets and margins, we begin to see the need for a higher capacity healthcare delivery system. This in turn puts pressure on the healthcare organizations to ensure higher standards of patient care, and compliance with the reform provisions. However, these are the harsh realities of today’s healthcare environment, a setting in which value does not always equal quality. The use of technology can help to amend some of this by providing higher capacity care without compromising quality; this can be done with the use of such technology as electronic health records (EHRs). This paper will aim to address how EHRs influence healthcare today by expanding upon topics such as funding sources, reimbursement methods, economic factors, socioeconomic factors, business influences, and cost containment.

Over the previous eight years, there has been a significant investment of private and public funds to upsurge the adoption of Electronic health records (EHRs) across the nation. The extensive adoption and “meaningful use” of electronic health records is a national priority. EHRs come in various forms and can be utilized in distinct organizations, as interoperating systems in allied health care units, on a regional level, or nationwide. The benefit of utilizing an EHR depends heavily on provider’s uptake on technology. Benefits related to electronic health records are numerous and may have clinical, organizational and societal outcomes. However, challenges in implementing electronic health records has attained some attention, the implementation

Technology has enabled us to make advances in patient care, and thus increase healthy patient outcomes. Nurses are constantly adapting to new technology, and need to learn to work with their IT department to successfully maneuver their electronic system. This paper will provide details of EHR implementation, and the goals of health implementation technology.

As the emergence of electronic health records (EHRs), the subject of transforming the delivery method of healthcare is prominent in the United States. The use of EHRs is a major key in the way physicians practice in healthcare organizations through communication and management of patient information. Henricks (2011) points out that EHRs are a part of an objective aimed at improving all aspects of health care and reducing health disparities, making the healthcare of patients and families appealing to them, refining the direction of healthcare, along with population and public health improvement, continuation of privacy maintenance and the security of health information, and finally reducing costs. In the perspective of health information technology

Containing ninety participants, 36% of the respondents were hospital CIOs and I.T. executives, 19% from integrated delivery systems headquarters, 19% from group practices, and 27% from other facilities. Survey results pertained to patient health records, electronic health record (EHR) certification, and other IT issues in healthcare. According to the survey, “81% of respondents said their I.T. budgets will grow, with the most common prediction being growth of 5% to 10%. Implementing electronic health records was the No. 1 software investment priority for the coming year for hospitals, integrated delivery systems and group practices alike.” (CIOs Predict Future Trends, n.d) Interestingly, despite the economy at the time showing signs of a recession, “the vast majority of health care organizations expect their information technology budgets to grow during the next fiscal year, and this growth is driven primarily by a need to improve access to information for clinicians, the survey shows.” (CIOs Predict Future Trends, n.d) This improved access to information can be applied to patients as well, as the push towards cloud storage and record/test results access alleviates the need to wait, call, and require record searches from the physician’s staff. On the subject of streamlining access to the implementation to patient EHRs, 19% of

In February of 2009, the American Reinvestment & Recovery Act (ARRA) was passed to help the nation modernize its infrastructure. The “Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act” was then passed to address the barriers to the adoption of the electronic health record by healthcare organizations (Sandefer, Marc, & Kleeburg, 2015). There are many barriers for healthcare organizations to adopt the electronic health record. These include: “substantial cost, the perceived lack of financial return from investing in them, the technical and logistic challenges involved in installing,

Currently, the healthcare industry only spends 2% of gross revenues on health information technology, while the banking industry spends upwards of 10%. However, the Veterans Healthcare System is one of the largest integrated systems in the world. One hundred fifty-five hospitals and eight hundred clinics rely on one electronic health system (Gupta & Murtaza, 2009). Implementing information systems in hospitals is more challenging than elsewhere because of the complexity of medical data, data entry problems, security and confidentiality concerns and a general lack of awareness of the benefits of Information Technology (Boonstra et al., 2014). The newly implemented system must be reliable from the onset as patient care does not cease in the meantime. Technology has the potential to streamline current practices and reduce costs, however, hospitals must consider the potential risks and consequences of a poorly implemented project and agree that failure is not an option. Good project planning and management can assure success of Electronic Health Record

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).

As Electronic Health Records (EMR) become part of the Nursing world, nurses must continue to be educated on the standard of care. Since nurses have the most one on one with the patients, we have to be involved and heard as the changes take place. Nursing must stay engaged in this evolution and help shape its direction, as it has already proven to have a significant impact on our practice and our patients (Dee McGonigle, 2012). We must be leaders in this process so we can provide our patients with the proper information and educate them about their care. Its known that informed patients have better outcomes and pay more attention to their overall health (Susan McBride PhD, 2012). If wisely implemented, HIT may eventually free up more time for

In 2009, one of the largest US initiatives to date put place under Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act was electronic health records. The main initiative of this act was to encourage widespread use of electronic medical records also known as EHR. EHRs are defined as “a longitudinal electronic record of patient health information generated by one or more encounters in any care delivery setting. (Menachmi, 2011) Government continues to incentivize the industry with new healthcare objectives based around quality and technology. One can only think that the basis of these initiatives start with the electronic medical records as the foundation. The implementation of electronic medical records can result in many

The transformation of the U.S. Healthcare System has given new meaning to the phrase “Meaningful Use”. The government’s offer of significant funds to implement Electronic Health Records (EHR) has created valuable incentives for healthcare organizations to do away with paper charting and implement a new automated electronic system. The successful implementation of this new system requires the selection of the right team members with a wide array of perspectives, skills, and knowledge. This process begins by identifying an interdisciplinary project committee to be known as the Electronic Health Records (EHR) Leadership Team. This team represents a coalition of professionals in such areas as decision-making, finance, clinical specialists, and information technology. The Chief Executive Officer of the hospital ordinarily represents the development and implementation of the overall organization 's strategy will continue this role as EHR Team Lead position responsible for making final decisions regarding the new system implementation plan (NLC, 2014). The Chief Operating Officer manages the business aspects of the hospital including finance, legal and compliance, facilities and information technology and will participate in the project as the EHR Implementation Manager (NLC, 2014). The Medical Director who promotes education, improvement performance and quality assurance will contribute clinical expertise to the systems project as the Physician Champion (NLC, 2014). The

Electronic Health Records (EHR) provides an efficient way for the medical staff to get access to and view detailed patient health information and physician documentation. The online Journal of Nursing states, the digital wave of electronic records needs to be embraced to improve patient care and healthcare disparities of Americans (Sheridan, 2012). There are several benefits that come can from viewing and accessing one’s electronic record such as the ability to view and verify one’s prenatal history and medical diagnosis, estimated date of delivery (EDD), and view the documented date of a patient’s last menstrual period (LMP). All these benefits can aid in meeting quality care measures by assuring that the best care and safety practices are

Electronic medical records (EMR) improve healthcare by handling personal information of the patient and reducing the frequent errors caused by storing personal information. There is no specific definition of EMR, it is only a collection of data in digital form to give the best care to the patient while accessing their personal health information. EMR caused great changes in the healthcare industry as electronic medical records are easily portable and accessible from anywhere at any time.

An electronic health record allows providers to access health records more readily and to optimize the health outcomes of their patients. Missouri implemented a program with the goal to help Primary care providers to achieve meaningful use of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) by March of 2012 (Missouri Health Information Technology Assistance Center). Meaningful use focuses on things such as asthma, diabetes, and hypertension since they have the most impact and quality and cost in healthcare. Healthcare information should be accessible nationally. Many other industries have utilized technological advances to their benefit, but health care has not on the national level as of yet

This paper will identify the use of Electronic Health Records and how nursing plays an important role. Emerging in the early 2000’s, utilizing Electronic Health Records have quickly become a part of normal practice. An EHR could help prevent dangerous medical mistakes, decrease in medical costs, and an overall improvement in medical care. Patients are often taking multiple medications, forget to mention important procedures/diagnoses to providers, and at times fail to follow up with providers. Maintaining an EHR could help tack data, identify patients who are due for preventative screenings and visits, monitor VS, & improve overall quality of care in a practice. Nurse informaticists play an important role in the