Electronic Medical Records Are Transforming The World Of Healthcare

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.

Electronic health records (EHR) are health records that are generated by health care professionals when a patient is seen at a medical facility such as a hospital, mental health clinic, or pharmacy. The EHR contains the same information as paper based medical records like demographics, medical complaints and prescriptions. There are so many more benefits to the EHR than paper based medical records. Accuracy of diagnosis, quality and convenience of patient care, and patient participation are a few examples of the

In efforts to reform the United States healthcare system and create a nationally unified data exchange system the federal government has established an incentive program to eligible professionals and hospitals. The federal government has turned to certified electronic health record (EHR) technology to help facilitate the process of broadening health IT infrastructures. The federal government views EHR system used in meaningful ways as the key to reforming the healthcare systems. Meaningful use of the EHR systems can also improve the overall quality of healthcare, insure patient safety, as well as reduce the cost of healthcare to individuals (Bigalke & Morris, 2010, p. 116).

But as noted previously, more is needed than standardizing these processes. Health care providers (physicians and hospitals) should embrace electronic health records (EHRs) and should integrate appropriate information from billing systems with clinical information (the recording and analysis of clinical services) from EHRs (Wikler et al., 2012; Cutler et al., 2012). To address concerns that occur due to accessing medical records, the secretary of health and human services could expand criteria under the Health information Technology for Economic and Clinical

Making the switch to an electronic medical records system will help to bring forth health care advances with the systems data quality and availability. This research study uses focus groups and surveys to get the opinions of different health care providers and some patients on what they think EMR will do for the health care industry. Literature related to EMR was reviewed to get a better understanding of the benefits and barriers of electronic medical records. The study uses data from

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

While HPMG utilization of health information technology in three distinct manners certainly puts them ahead of many healthcare providers back in 2007, with ARRA and ACA, healthcare providers are required to implement electronic health records in some form. By 2013 over 63% of physicians in the United States adopted electronic health records and another 28% have a system partially implemented or plan to implement one in the next two years (The Commonwealth Fund, 2015). With 91% of physicians either having a system implemented or planning to implement, electronic health records are certainly a system that was replicated throughout healthcare in 2014.

In healthcare settings, it often comes up when documentation and information on use of electronic health records are not communicated effectively. The organization and its investors decided to transfer over to a new electronic health record (EHR) system —connecting care across the New England area and the healthcare continuum through three services. This new EHR system would drive results with industry-leading services, from practice management and EHR to population health services. These three services were crucial to industry success and were designed with the following formula: Network+Knowledge+Work=Results. When presenting the new EHR system to physicians, the project team requested the clinical providers ask themselves a few questions as they assessed the transition. A few of the questions that physicians asked themselves include:

The article, “2016 Report to Congress on HIT Progress,” explains how electronic health record became a highly used resource in the past six years. Most healthcare organizations have decisively moved from the paper based industry to an electronic records system. As the 2016 Report to Congress on HIT Progress shows, at this time, a huge amount of electronic health data exists across the United States, which was not available many years ago. This is a great opportunity for future generations to advance the practitioners’ awareness of decision making towards treatment and quality of care. The electronic health record is now necessary and very convenient for doctors to use towards review patient’s medical history.

Denisco & Barker, (2016) review the significance of the electronic medical record (EMR) in the today’s health care practice. As a follow up to the previous question, the dialog concerning EMRs and technology continued with the following: “Speaking of technology, how does the use of the EMR with embedded evidence based, best practices affect how you practice and your efficiency?”

To encourage the adoption and implementation of the electronic health records (EHRs)by healthcare provider’s investment was made in the year 2009 by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. For the widespread use of EHRs incentive payments were authorized through Medicare and Medicaid to clinicians and hospitals when they privately and securely use EHRs for achieving improvements in care delivery by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH).The healthcare organizations are expected to demonstrate meaningful use of EHRs. This rule of meaningful use has been implemented to strike a balance between acknowledging the urgency of adopting EHRs for improving the healthcare system and identifying the challenges that would be put forth by this. The federal government would provide resources to support the adoption and implementation of EHRs. It would make $27billion available as incentive payments over a period of 10 years, and as much as $63,750(through Medicaid incentives) and $44,000(through Medicare incentives).

With the era of smartphones and tablets, they are replacing monitoring and recording systems with the ability to have full consultations in the privacy of one’s home with the use of telemedicine. The electronic health record (EHR) was used in approximately 16 percent of U.S. hospitals in 2009 (Jayanthi, 2014). By 2013, that number increased to 80 percent of eligible CMS meaningful use incentive programs (Jayanthi, 2014). While the use of EHRs is standardizing the efficiency of patient information, it also has improved the collection of data for population health. When health care providers have access to patients information, they provide better care. The use of EHRs can improve the ability to diagnose diseases and reduce medical errors while improving patient outcomes (HealthIT.gov, 2015). Based on a national survey of physicians using EHRs stated that having this system eliminated the need for record retrieval, produced clinical benefits to their practice, and allowed them to provide better quality of care in managing chronic conditions. The use of EHRs can reduce errors and improve better patient outcomes compared to paper-based record

Less than a quarter of physicians use EMRs, further investigation into the low rate of adoption needs to occur. Most medical journals indicate that the primary reason for the low adoption rate is the high initial cost and the uncertainty of the financial benefits (Miller, 2004). In recent findings, upfront cost for an EMR system could range anywhere from $15,000 to $38,000 per physician with no guarantee of financial payoff (Crosson, 2005). The price is dependent on the unique structure of the practice, its needs, and its requirements. In a recent cost-benefit analysis presented in the American Journal of Medicine, the estimated net benefit from using EMR for a five year period was $86,400 per provider. These benefits accrued from savings in drug expenditures, improved utilization of radiology tests, better capture of charges, and decreased billing errors. Additional findings included, that EMR in a primary care can result in a positive return on investment for the health care organization (Wang, 2003). This leads to the question as to “Why have all physicians not incorporated EMR in the clinical settings?”

Health information systems (HIS) involves the shifting from a paper-based to a computer-based processing and storage of patient healthcare information (Haux). The shift is intended to promote efficient and cheaper healthcare for patients. Indeed, in 2009 the U.S government “allocated $19 billion to encourage the adoption of health information technology (HIT) and in particular electronic health records (EHRs)” (Blumenthal). 1 This move by the government shows its confidence or belief that information technology is key towards improving the quality of treatment that patients receive in America. The government went a step ahead and provided subsidies to physicians who utilize the EHRs to the tune of $2 million dollars (Blumenthal). On the other hand, the government also introduced a 1% penalty on Medicare fees on doctors who do not use the EHRs (Blumenthal).

Summary: Public and private financial incentives are aligned as never before to encourage physicians to adopt electronic health records. To aid in the transition, the government has also put billions into training health information technology workers and establishing regional extension centers to provide technical and other advice. Even so, progress is slow and obstacles remain. Chief among those obstacles may be the investment of time required to transition to an electronic system.