Electronic Health Records ( Ehr ) Systems

Implementation of the electronic health records (EHRs) has been a growing trend in the healthcare field from fear of the unknown to the acceptance of the reality of the EHRs and the actually utilizing the system. The struggle to go live with the EHR was a challenge because change is always a difficult implementation. According to Fickenscher & Bakerman, (2011) Change is a process that is individualized base on one's ability to adopt and the interest on the change. Some people may take longer to understand a process while others will grab the skill within a short time. However, some few setbacks slow down the adoption of the EHRs when it was first implemented, Culture, communication and training and time. Despite

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)

EHR was created to have a technical way to securely exchange private and personal medical health information in hopes to improve the quality of care, decrease medical errors, limiting paper use, reduction of health care cost, and increasing a person access to affordable health care. A mandate was created for EHR stating that health records can be accessible to all facilities with patients having the capability to access their own health records at any time. Ameliorating the quality and convenience of care given to a patient, allow for cost saving measures, engage the patient and family to participate in their care, improve accuracy of medical diagnosis, and enhance the efficiency of the overall outcome of the patients’ health.

Technology has come a long way over the years and continues to advance rapidly. The health care system is greatly affected by the advancements in technology. An example of this would be the use of electronic health records (EHR). In this paper I will be describing the electronic health record system. How my facility has initiated the EHR with following the six steps and describe meaningful use and how my facility is working towards this. Lastly I will discuss how to maintain patient confidentiality with use of EHR, and what my facility is doing to prevent HIPPA violations.

Moving to an EHR can be difficult and the advantages may be unclear and the disadvantages may seem immense. The EHR is an electronic version of a patient’s medical history, maintained by the provider over time, and includes all administrative, clinical data relevant to that persons care under a particular provider, including demographics, diagnosis, progress notes, medications, vital signs, past medical history, immunizations, lab and radiology reports. (CMS.gov, 2011). The principle object here is

Remember when everything was paper based and computers never existed, what happen to those days? What happen to having to do things manual? Well technology sure has changed and had made things easier and more cost effective in some ways. In the 1980s and the 1990s, Electronic Health Records (EHR) was just being introduced in such organizations such as Intermountain Health Care-Utah, Partners Healthcare-Boston, and Wishard Memorial Hospital-Indiana were among the few to see the quality and efficiency of EHR. (Byers, 2011)

The use of Electronic Health Record can be very dangerous to patient care and safety when wrongly document as information stored in the system are considered to be

The government has been trying to protect patients’ healthcare information since they first introduced The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA). Since that time, technology has paved the way for The Electronic Health Record (EHR). Those that promote the usage of the EHR as the standard of care, strongly believe that the risks of privacy are outweighed by the benefits that it brings. These benefits include, but are not limited to: improved patient care, decreased medical errors, and better collaboration between healthcare providers.

In response to a rapid advancement in technologies, a concern for security has also grown. A drawback of a significant increase in adoption of EHR would be the vulnerability of patients’ sensitive information as frequently seen in cases of identity theft and breach in the retail industry as of late. As of January 1, 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services reported a staggering number of 81, 790 breaches of patient information in healthcare (McDavid, 2013).

An Electronic Health Record (EHR) is a real time digital version of a patient’s paper chart that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users. EHR contain a patient’s medical history, diagnoses, medications, treatment plans, immunization dates, allergies, radiology images, and laboratory and test results. Allow access to evidence-based

Health care professional and hospital can qualify for Medicare And Medicaid incentive payments when they implement EHR’s, and used them to achieve their objectives. The goal of this meaningful use is to promote the spread of EHRs; to improve health care in the United States. There has been an increase in the adoption of health and meaningful use of EHRs. In 2015, 84% of hospitals adopted at least a basic EHR system; this represents a 9-fold increase since 2008 (Henry, 2016). Basic EHRs includes functionalities, such as viewing imaging results, which are not included in certified EHRs. A certified EHR is EHR technology that meets the technology capability, functionality, and security requirements adopted by the Department of Health and Human Services (Henry, 2016). The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act has mandated that electronic health records be adopted in healthcare organization around the United States. Not long ago, doctors and nurses would write notes in a patient’s chart during an office or hospital visit. Today, more and more patient can expect to see computers instead of clipboards, since the adoption of health

The implementation of EHR’s in hospitals, laboratories, and physician offices are more prevalent; they are encouraging the patients to access their records online. Furthermore, doctors have access to consults, radiology reports, and emergency department details at the stroke of a key. This allows for a comprehensive assessment of the patient; without governmental mandates for interoperability of EMRs, this will remain to be inconsistent in the healthcare field.

According to Edward P. Ambinder, MD (2005) The American health care system is preparing for transition into the Information Age, much like other institutions such as financial, supermarkets, airlines and most manufacturing industries. Ambinder says that this transition will facilitate the widespread and universally accepted use of electronic medical records (EMRs), electronic health records (EHRs) and personal health records (PHRs). Before discussing why EMRs should be used, one must first understand what it is and what its functions are.

Healthcare professionals, in hospitals, ambulatory services and other medical facilities create an Electronic Health Record (EHR) for a patient. This record is generated and maintained within an institution, to give the patients, clinicians and other healthcare professionals access to a patients medical records across different facilities. “The benefit of an EHR is that it can be accessed, used and updated by authorised users in different locations” (Univeristy of Western Sydney, 2014)

By 2030, we can predict that traditional paper and manually recorded medical records will be ancient history and that universal technical systems will be in place. EHRs (electronic health records) systems are collections of digital medical records kept by health care facilities and affiliates such as hospitals, doctor's offices, and insurance companies (Lynn, 2011). The intention of the EHR system is to extend health information technology into the realm of patient record keeping and automated healthcare processes (Kumar & Aldrich, 2010). A patient's entire medical history can be converted to digital format and stored securely for use by various entities over time. EHRs eliminate vast paper trails condensing pertinent information into electronic form (Obama, 2009). Records are easily retrievable and enable patient's to navigate through the healthcare system in a safer and more efficient manner (Lynn, 2011). EHRs allow for a higher level of standardization, security and improved privacy for patient information.