Informatic Analysis

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 and Healthcare Today Kevin Joseph Nova Southeastern University Technology and Healthcare Today 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.

A wave of medical errors and patient deaths caused by healthcare providers renewed the search for a viable EHR system in 2000. Electronic health records would allow "providers to make better decisions and provide better

Web Based EHR: Practice Fusion The healthcare industry is in the midst of a major change from paper based medical record keeping to electronic medical record keeping. As part of the American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act was passed (Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, 2014). HITECH is the U.S. Government’s first major contribution to the change from paper to electronic health information technology by setting meaningful use incentive program for Medicare and Medicaid providers that met certain requirements. Healthcare professionals that meet the meaningful use criteria will be awarded financially, and those that don’t meet the 2015 guideline will be penalized. We live in an electronic world of instant access to information and by adopting health information technology we give providers better and easier access to more information which in turn allows them to make a more informed diagnosis and treatment plan for the patient. The electronic health record (EHR) is part of the new information technology. According to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (2014.), EHR’s provide many benefits such as improvement in the quality of patient care; improvement in the coordination of patient care; more accurate diagnosis and better outcomes; a higher level of patient participation in their own care; and cost savings for the practice

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

Although, mistakes can best be prevented by designing the health system at all levels to make it safer to make it harder for people to do something wrong and easier for them to do it right (Andell, 2015). Developing and testing new technologies to reduce medical errors on a large-scale demonstrates projects to test safety interventions and error-reporting strategies (Andel, 2015). The barcode scanning system had a great impact on lowering the odds of an error reaching the patient. Additional things found in the study, that there were wrong dose, omissions, and communication errors that were considered as a “common error”. Overall, medication error rates decreased when there were pharmacist on duty at least 40 hours or more a week, and having the barcodes system support (Cochran et al.,

Initializing Bar Code Technology in a New Electronic Health Record System Alizabeth Madison Liberty University Implementing Bar Code Technology in a New Electronic Health Record System “The United States based Institute of Medicine (IOM) reported in 1999 that at least 44,000 people, and perhaps as many as 98,000 people, die in hospitals each year as a result of medical errors that could have been prevented…” (Anonymous, 2015). When faced with more than a singular sentinel event related to medication administration errors, the organization must begin to look into why this happened and what can be done to prevent any more errors from occurring. Implementing new bar code technology into a new electronic health record (EHR) system can dramatically reduce the number of errors made by healthcare providers. In order to implement a new system; several steps must occur. An informatics nurse plays a vital role in not only the design of new program interfaces, but in developing educational programs for the new systems. Not all studies have shown that implementing a new bar coding system can be beneficial to healthcare providers, though.

Medication Barcode Scanning (MBS) has been considered as one of the significant ways of reducing medication error. It begins from when medication is ordered by the doctor, a pharmacist reviews the order prior to supplying the medication to the nurse who then administers the medication to the patient (Department Veterans Affairs, 2003)). Study stated that from about 450,000 drug adverse effect that occur yearly, about 25% would be avoided with the use of certain technologies like medication barcode scanning (Bates, Cullen & Laird et al, 1995). According to Seibert, Maddox, Flynn & Williams (2014), technologies like “automated dispensing cabinets, computerized prescriber order entry (CPOE), “smart” computerized I.V. infusion pumps,

In July of 2004, Tommy Thompson, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, stated, "[A]merica needs to move much faster to adopt information technology in our health care system...electronic health information will provide a quantum leap in patient power, doctor power, and effective health care. We can 't wait

The purpose of this discussion is to review clinical informatics and the effect it has on patient care. Implementation of the Electronic Health Record President Bush mandated the implementation of the electronic health record by 2014. He did this for several reasons. Reasons such as improved quality, safety, and efficiency to

Electronic Health Records Electronic health records (EHR) is a new way for the health care system to put patients information in one place. Most doctors or physicians call for digital health records. While, this may sound like a good idea to have all the information transfer to computers, it does not

23). Data Collection Changes in society and healthcare ultimately produce changes in the need for healthcare informatics. Costs, quality, and demographics require constant monitoring to recognize the need for change. As the population ages and becomes more diverse in cultures, quality and accountability continue to be demanded of providers, and inequity of and accessibility to healthcare remain a burden, informatic systems will be required to improve the delivery of healthcare to deserving consumers (McCormick et al., 2007, para. 5-7).

The healthcare industry is undertaking a structural change by aligning HIT with the delivery of care to improve quality, control costs, and enhance the efficiency of the system. The strategy is to build a national health information infrastructure that allows health information to be shared between providers, consumers, and payers in a patient-centric manner. The infrastructure change is taking place on three frontiers. First, providers are incentivized to use electronic health records in both inpatient and ambulatory medical practices. Second, local and nationwide health information exchange (HIE) systems are being built for providers, payers, and other health information users to access

Introduction 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 today’s medical field technology plays a big role when it comes to patient care. Technology is huge when it comes to giving the patient the best type of quality care when they are in the hospital. In the old days people would just write it down on a sheet of paper and record it by hand, which caused mistakes. Now with the Electronic Health Record those mistakes are drastically declining. Statistics have shown that using the Electronic Health Record has lowered Nursing mistakes as well as improved patient care. Our society has progressed through the years and has been introduced with the Electronic Health Record which has drastically improved our health care system. The Electronic Health Record provides great communication between