Electronic Medical Records And Electronic Health Records

In the medical field there have been a lot of technological advances and making health records electronic is one of them. The days of having a paper health record are almost obsolete. An electronic health record keeps a patient’s medical information and history on a computer which is accessible to more people in less time. I will explain how the continuity, communication, coordination and accountability of the electronic health record can help the medical office. I will explain what can be included in the electronic health record. As an advocate of the electronic health record I will also explain some disadvantages to the electronic system.

The staff employed in a medical facility depends on many things to keep the quality of patient care in the positive and efficient. Physicians and nursing need the current and most

Electronic filing also cuts down on the space needed tremendously, they no longer need a huge room to store all patients files. It is also faster to find, update, and send electronic files. Last but not least, societal outcomes include being better able to conduct research and achieving improved population health. Although it seems there could be nothing wrong with EMR, there are potential disadvantages associated with this technology. These include financial issues, changes in workflow, temporary loss of productivity associated with EHR adoption, privacy and security concerns, as well as access.

But with the benefits there are also the risk factors. Some disadvantages of the EHR system would include; initial cost of planning and implementing an EHR system, lack of standardization across the healthcare setting, unauthorized access to patient information (security and privacy), inaccurate patient information if not updated properly, technical downtimes, potential negligence for data loss and possible patient access to conditions that they don’t comprehend which may panic them.

* Reduction of medication errors- Barcode medication administration safeguards against wrong pt/wrong med/wrong dose errors and alerts to potential medication interactions (Goth, 2006).

Implementation of EHR shows improvement of quality of care by the nurses ability to access the patient chart at the bedside, decreasing the risk of wrong patient errors.

However, whereas this seems to prove the importance of EHRs there is a need to understand the steps to quality healthcare and how EHRs enable hospitals provide these aspects. This paper will try to bring forth, the true picture of Electronic Health Records effectiveness. It is important to understand what an EHR is. According to this paper, this will take the following definition

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.

The electronic health record has affected nursing in multiple ways. The EHR helps nurses provide fast and effective care by saving them time, and time

Some may mix up an EHR and Electronic Medical Record (EMR) because of some of their similarities. However, they are different in many aspects. “The EHR contains patient health information gathered from the EMRs of multiple HCD organizations and is electronically stored and accessed. EHRs differ from EMRs because they contain subsets of patient information from each visit that a patient has experienced, possibly at many different HCD systems. EHRs are interactive and can share information among multiple healthcare providers (Darline 4).” “Meaning it has digital version of charts, streamlined sharing of updated, real time sharing, patient’s medical information to move with them, and access tools for decision making (EHRvEMR 1).” Although, this is the best electronic system used, there are more electronic systems out there that are used. The EMR is among the many used. It is defined as an electronic version of patient files within a single organization. “EMR has digital records of an individual’s

Patient’s information is kept confidential and less likely to have a breach the HIPPA law. Having regular charting system, things can easily get lost. Pages can come out of the chart without knowing really knowing or noticing; personnel’s handwriting may not be legible, which cause confusing for other staff and billing, and the list can go on. With the electronic medical records, the need for paper would be less.

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.

Besides the disadvantages of (EMR)’s the advantages pose great benefits to patient care and efficiency. The greater use of electronic medical records or health records can reduce wait times, of seeing doctors or waiting for test results. All staff would need to cohesively work out the technical challenges and software data. With sophisticated IT

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

Another big plus of the EHRs is that studies have shown that it has helped providers improve accuracy of diagnoses and health outcomes (Couch, 2008). For example, nurses could have reliable access to patients complete health information and have pictures which would help with whatever problem they might encounter. EHR doesn’t just keep patients medications and allergies, it also check for problems whenever a new medication is prescribed and it also alerts the nurse of potential problems (Couch, 2008). EHRs can also tell the nurse if potential safety problems occur, which helps them avoid more serious consequences for patients, which can lead to better outcomes. The EHRs can also help nurses quickly identify and correct operational problems, which compared to the paper-based setting, those kinds of problems would be more difficult to correct. It can also help