Epic EMR Reflection Paper

EPIC EpicCare is rated as the best Acute care and Ambulatory EMR for large hospitals with more than 75 physicians (KLAS Research,2017). As Houston Methodist (HM) is committed to Leading medicine and improve patient experience, the leadership decided in 2013 to shift from MethOD an EMR based on Allscripts® to a new EHR looking for an integrated solution that will help build a complete and robust patient story, easily accessible by the care team to help them make more informed decisions in order to achieve better health outcomes, improve communications, and get patients more involved by providing them with convenient online tools. HM started the vendor selection process in 2014 and in 2015 they decided to go for EPIC EpicCare

Epic believes integration is key factor to the success of health information technology (HIT) and develops their products around that philosophy. According to Jean Wojtanek, laboratory manager at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, (personal communication July 2012), Epic is being integrated with the current software systems Meditech is currently serving laboratory resulting, a customized application is in the works from Epic. Sunquest serves registration services, and GE Radiology serving clinical imaging systems. Epic software integrates e-prescribing, computerized physician order entry (CPOE), clinical messaging features and an in-basket which documents telephone and written communications that become part of the patient’s record states Cummings. Epic software is quick to implement, easy to use and highly interoperable through industry standards. Physicians have the capabilities of using Epic on a home or personal computer. Cummings shared “how outpatient and ambulatory settings are provided with a function called Smart Tools. It is a clinical documentation group of shortcuts that allows the user various

EMR system documents the examination, diagnosis, and treatment of a patient. This information is vital for the current and

EMR stands for Electronic Medical Records. It is “a paperless, digital and computerized system of maintaining patient data, designed to increase the efficiency and reduce documentation errors by streamlining the process.” (Santiago, n.d., para. 1)

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

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

Epic is a single integrated system for the clinical and business functions of health care provision that include registration, scheduling, and billing. The system is owned by Epic Systems, formerly Episodic Care, a large provider of HIT (health information technology) and is mainly utilized by health providers in accessing, systematizing, storing, and distributing EMR’s. Epic Systems is an independent firm in Verona, Wisconsin with a vast campus. Epic is useful in streamlining regulatory compliance, clinical workflow, quality care, the patient experience, and clinical documentation. This is a reflection of the

The implementation of the new EMR system to the hospital will provide ease of information access, protected PHI, and help eliminate errors in our everyday use.

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.

A.V. stated, “we have just upgraded our computer system to EPIC.” This new EHR is going to improve patient care. It will be more user friendly and eliminate some of the clicking and make it easier to navigate.”

As useful as the EMR is to patient care there exist a few drawbacks when records are transformed from paper into the digital form. Even though patient health records can only be accessed from inside the hospital’s computers, the EMR can be accessed from anywhere inside the hospital or from another hospital or clinic within the same organization. Before the implementation of the EMR, healthcare staff had to go directly to the patient 's physical chart and thumb through pages of information. Now, with the EMR, any hospital employee can access any patient 's information anywhere inside the hospital. EMRs are more easily accessible, even to personnel not involved in the

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

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

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.

Electronic medical records had a great impact in the ushering in of the age of Nursing Informatics. (Himss, 2010)EMRS present healthcare professionals with the ability to retrieve and organize data in a quick and efficient approach. With information so readily available, patient safety increases and we know that patient cost goes down. This happens because patient medications, allergies, history, demographic, and treatment information is more collectively available.