Essay about Electronic Health Records

The use of the EMR has improved the Nation’s health and economy (HealthIT, 2016). While I

There are many functions in an electronic health record but according to the Institute of Medicine’s Letter Report on the Key Capabilities of an Electronic Health

After decades of paper based medical records, a new type of record keeping has surfaced - the Electronic Health Record (EHR). EHR is an electronic or digital format concept of an individual’s past and present medical history. It is the principle storage place for data and information about the health care services provided to an individual patient. It is maintained by a provider over time and capable of being shared across different healthcare settings by network-connected information systems. Such records may include key administrative and clinical data relevant to that persons care under a particular provider. Examples of such records may include: demographics, physician notes, problems or injuries, medications and allergies, vital

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.

Electronic health records is a major component in the United States health care system. It has been proven to improve health care quality by saving time and reducing

Health Information Technology has increased efficiency; medical breakthroughs have increased life expectancy, cures, and improved preventive care. Benefits of EMR’s are the opportunities for improving health care efficiency, safety, health benefits and net savings, reducing hospital lengths of stay, nurse’s administrative time drug usage in hospitals and drug and radiology usage in the outpatient setting (Takvorian,2007). EMR’s will assist with research and quality improvement leading to rapid advancement in personalized medicine. It helps patients become more involved in their care (Takvorian, 2007).

On the other hand, some health care professionals are reluctant to adopt PHR due to concerns that additional work associated with the use of PHRs might not be reimbursed. Another factor is the interoperability between PHRs and existing EMRs or EHRs. The low adoption rate of PHRs among physicians could be due to the fact that the current PHR systems could not effectively support their needs and therefore could not be seamlessly integrated into their work

Integrated EMR systems allow participating physicians to have real time access to patient charts, including test results, medical histories, and physician care notes. This provides organization throughout a patient's’ care and across different specialties improving the accuracy and efficiency of decision making. Integrated EMR systems as utilized in the ACO structure encourages physician communication and coordination in regards to testing, avoiding unnecessary frustration for the patient.

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

Goal for implementation of using EMR in a hospital facility would include 100% reduction in medication errors. To measure the outcome on reduction in medication error by use of the EMR, data would be collected by scan rates of the nurses. After installation and six months of use of the EMR, a mandatory survey can help give management an idea of how well the nurses are adapting and accepting the EMR. Scan rates will be monitored every month by management to evaluate progress of the nurses, use of the EMR, and tracking of potential medication error. The respondents to the survey would identify whether certain factors were major or minor barriers or were not barriers to the adoption of an EMR and whether it increased or decreased potential medication errors on patients. The survey would be taken annually for five years, by nurses working on a medical-surgical

Electronic medical records can benefit patients in many ways. One major way it can benefit a patient is the efficiency of the records being organized and easy for any practitioner or staff member to read. EMR can lower the risks of

Some negative indications when using EMR’s could be: power outages and or computer glitches, potential privacy threats, and some believe that it may lead to depersonalized patient care.

The EMR system is better for some doctors because it eliminates the unclear handwriting, thus cutting down on the unclear writing mistakes by doctors. The patients have been released from the hospital at a rate of at least one day earlier than the patients with paper records and these bills were almost $900.00 less than when they used the paper records. There have been many deaths each year because of the wrong medication being written on the prescription paperwork and a pharmacist misread the handwriting on the form. If this information is typed the chances of making a mistake are less. There are also EMR systems that diagnose diseases and treatments, which is another advantage. Just imagine how fast the patient can be healed if a computer program can predict the results of an illness by entering the symptoms such as a device that searches for glaucoma via computer generated images, the analyzing of mammograms and the ultrasound device to analyze lumps in a females breast that determine if it is benign or cancerous. Most of the time these computer systems have accuracy rate of 80% or more which is the last advantages that we will talk about today.

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

In 2005, HIMSS Analytics developed the eight-stage EMR Adoption Model. The model reflects the results of more than 5,000 institutions surveyed about their level of clinical system implementation and progress toward a paperless EMR (HIMSS, 2009). To progress through each stage of the model, capabilities within each stage must be operational and all lower stages must have been achieved before a higher level will be considered achieved (HIMSS, 2009).