Health Information Systems Implementation And The Impact On Patient Outcomes

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.

Health providers across America are using Electronic Health Records systems to keep up with patient’s health information. Long hours of filing and writing patients health information manually has become a thing of the past. The Electronic Health Record system, known as EHRs, has changed how patients and health providers communicate as a whole. It has taken information technology to a different spectrum, and has helped patients become more aware of their health history and health conditions. Throughout the years, EHRs systems have been crucially ridicule in the medical world, due to lack of knowledge, high expenses, and apprehension among health providers. Because there will always be challenges when new technology starts to expand in any type of establishment. I believe that EHRs serves a great purpose in health care despite its delays.

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.

As the national health care system transitions to the electronic health record (EHR), it is important to recall the impetus to this reform. Prior to the implementation of the electronic health record, the national health care system encountered many problems that impeded quality patient care. There was not a standardized formal structure with the process. Consequently, it lacked communication across disciplines and among providers and

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are an important component in health care reform, but do they really bring efficiency to the practice? The extent to which practices use EHRs vary from the very basic (entering clinical notes and viewing results) to the intermediate (using e-Prescribing to indicate adverse drug prevention and provide suggestions for alternative drugs) to the advanced use (including lab and radiology order entry with testing guidance, capture of electronic charge, and evidence-based guidelines).

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

In 2009, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act was enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The HITECH Act supports the concept of Electronic Health Records and Meaningful Use. Meaningful Use is an effort led by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Meaningful Use is defined; using certified Electronic Health Record Technology in a meaningful manner; ensuring that the certified EHR technology is connected in a manner provides the electronic exchange of health information to improve the quality of care; and that providers must submit information on quality of care and other measures

Therefore, several authors share some of the same ideas as to what some of the barriers faced during the transition to Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and if these barriers still exist once the transition to a full EHR system is complete. Herrick, et al., 2010, states that currently, there is no hard-core evidence to support the argument that Electronic Health Record (EHRs) and Health Information Technology is the best route for health organizations to prevent errors. In fact, the use of such technology could potentially lead to errors if information incorrectly entered in the system and Haupt, 2011, statement that smart software could help to prevent life-threatening errors better when administering medicines. Whereas, Boonstra & Broekhuis, 2010, states from a physician point a view need the understanding of the possible barriers that faced during implementation of EHRs because there a tremendous amount of literature on the obstacles but no suggestion on how to resolve these barriers have not been viewed. Barriers such as, financial on great startup and ongoing cost, technical and time to train staff and how much knowledge do they have with computer skills and psychological when support needed from vendors, etc. It suggests that once those barriers have been ironed out and a plan has set in place, then the transition from paper documentation to Electronic Health Records (EHRs) may go a lot easier for the healthcare arena physician, nurses and administrative

Electronic medical records (EMR) can improve healthcare performance and cost efficiency in healthcare facilities. Improving healthcare performance includes patient safety, quality of care, and health status of the patients. Patient safety with medication errors continue to escalate, costing health care systems billions of dollars each year (Seibert, et al., 2014). An estimated 450,000 adverse drug events-medication errors that result in patient harm-occur annually, approximately 25% of which are preventable (Seibert, et. al, 2014). Overall, having an EMR helps improve healthcare delivery: no illegible handwriting, information can be shared on an instantaneous basis within a healthcare institution or between institutions, and review of previous

Electronic Health Records (EHR) are changing the way health care is delivered to patients, not just how patient medical information is stored. In the recent past, patient-doctor visits consisted of handwritten multiple medical forms to be completed, and most times duplicated. There were several areas of concern with past patient record keeping, omission of important care information, medical interventions and prescribed medication were missed in certain cases, erroneously prescribed or duplicated and records were lost or misplaced. EHR facilities and improves the quality of care by refining access to patient record by multiple health care providers and the patient; better decision support; reporting occurs in real time and is legible which

As patient information is readily available in the electronic record, it makes health care provider make better and quicker choices and decisions. These decisions can be based on evidence base care that is supported through data that is gathered from the patient’s records. EHR improves patient safety by providing access to information, eliminating gaps of communication among the different providers, decrease redundancy, and reduces duplication in testing. EHR has benefited health care and at the same time create positive outcomes for the nurses. Some of the positive outcomes for nurses are; comparison of previous to current data, improves documentation of the quality of care, allows recognition of the work done in measurable units by nurses, and reduces redundancy with baseline demographic data (Hebda & Czar, 2013). Data that is summarized through the EHR can evaluate performance management and look at quality issues. Along with those features, EHR can potentially increase efficiency, improved quality of care, standardize documentation, increase clinical workflow, and improved overall outcomes for

Technology has had a role in healthcare for some time, but only recently has it matured to a point where it can support operational, business and clinical functions of healthcare organizations. In the past, many hospitals used technology for specialized departments and unique roles, but the concept of a complete electronic health record system did not exist until the early 2000’s. The American Hospital Association (AHA) Information Technology (IT) Supplement to the AHA Annual Survey stated that in 2008 only 9.4% of hospitals had a basic electronic health record (EHR) system (HealthIT EHR, 2014). They defined a basic EHR as having electronic clinical information that includes results and the ability to enter and view clinical notes. Without the ability for healthcare organizations to capture clinical information electronically, an online patient engagement solution cannot

In a study conducted by the Health Services Research on the “Clinical Benefits of Electronic Health Record Use”, 78 percent of Physicians said that the EHR in general improved patient care. This included: remote access to patient charts, alerts for potential medical errors and critical test results, along with recommendations for care and proper test selections, and improve communication with patients (King, J., Patel, V., Jamoom, E. W., & Furukawa, M. F. (2014).

Most hospitals, medical practices across the United States are transitioning to electronic health care record system to improve quality measures and manage the number of patients they can generate, retrieve, and accumulate. However, the ambulatory care providers usually don’t use EHR technology to the full extent of its power because it associates barriers that stand in the way of changing medical practices. In this case, the EHR will also examine some of the advantages and disadvantages while medical practitioners make their decision. In ambulatory care, there are many advantages of using electronic medical records, such as increasing the cyber security level and privacy safety, eliminating medical errors, and improving the quality of care.

There are many different healthcare settings, which Electronic Health Records (EHR) have been implemented. One may think EHR’s are the same for all settings; however, based on the needs and application to each area, there are similarities and differences. This paper will delve into the Perioperative setting and Ambulatory setting in primary care. Information provided will highlight the value of Electronic Health Information (EHI), its impact at the warehouse and regional level as it improves patient care among the respective practitioners in these settings and its impact to Public Health Information Networks (PHIN) and National Health Information Networks (NHIN).