Interoperability Ehr System

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) states that in order to realize meaningful use of the EHR technology, healthcare providers are obliged to apply the technology in a approach that enriches quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare delivery; ebbs healthcare inconsistencies; involves patients and families; enriches care coordination; expands population and public health; and guarantees sufficient privacy and security guards for personal health information. (U.S Department of Health and

EHR was created to have a technical way to securely exchange private and personal medical health information in hopes to improve the quality of care, decrease medical errors, limiting paper use, reduction of health care cost, and increasing a person access to affordable health care. A mandate was created for EHR stating that health records can be accessible to all facilities with patients having the capability to access their own health records at any time. Ameliorating the quality and convenience of care given to a patient, allow for cost saving measures, engage the patient and family to participate in their care, improve accuracy of medical diagnosis, and enhance the efficiency of the overall outcome of the patients’ health.

To start, structured data capture (SDC) initiatives should be utilized in order to leverage existing EHR interoperability standards. SDC seeks to identify how interoperability technology can be used to access a template containing common data elements, populate the template with the correct common data elements from existing EHR data, and then store the template or transmit it elsewhere. Using this framework will give healthcare professionals a standard way to collect data and populate the templates, thus creating a way to access, display, and store the data. It is also important for hospitals to ensure that they are working to meet meaningful use requirements, which will help the organization to be more prepared and educated about interoperability and related issues. The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology states that the ultimate goal is to have an interoperability system in place by 2024, one that puts “the person at the center of [the] system that can continuously improve care, public health and science through real-time data access.” In order for the goal to be achieved, however, specific actions need to be taken. It is not enough to simply state what needs to be done, but rather it is the combination of the talk and actions that will make the end-goal

It has only been within the last five years that health information management (HIM) has experienced exponential changes, due to the healthcare reform. The electronic health record (EHR) is connected to health information exchanges and other systems of interoperability. The timely completion of charts, coding and release of information (ROI) has become much more efficient with the electronic record. Traditional HIM functions will just be transformed and will always be an integral part of successful patient care. Professionals must be flexible and willing to adapt and even generate change. As Health Information Technology continues to evolve, so will the roles

Giving the facts from the Real-World Case by purchasing the same EHR system as Community Hospital, physicians have confidence that they will have better control of care over their patients. In addition, they will be able to write orders, advise medications and also have the capability to get into the providers EHR systems while covering in other specific areas of the hospital. For this reason, some pros of the EHR consist of better patient care, better-quality care coordination, upgraded diagnostics and patient outcomes and the applying of a computerized physician order entry; this allows in the decrease of transcript mistakes related to poor writing on behalf of the physicians for either procedures or prescriptions. (HealthIT, 2015) Regrettably, there is also a downside, as not all areas of the hospital, such as the Physical Therapy unit, Nurse’s station and Nutrition department are ready to engage with the new technology.

The use EHR systems has both positive and negative impact on individual health information because of the risk exposures such as hacking, privacy violations, etc. associated with EHR systems. On a positive note, the use of EHR has increase coordination of care, patient-provider relationships through patient portals. creating and monitoring quality

Containing ninety participants, 36% of the respondents were hospital CIOs and I.T. executives, 19% from integrated delivery systems headquarters, 19% from group practices, and 27% from other facilities. Survey results pertained to patient health records, electronic health record (EHR) certification, and other IT issues in healthcare. According to the survey, “81% of respondents said their I.T. budgets will grow, with the most common prediction being growth of 5% to 10%. Implementing electronic health records was the No. 1 software investment priority for the coming year for hospitals, integrated delivery systems and group practices alike.” (CIOs Predict Future Trends, n.d) Interestingly, despite the economy at the time showing signs of a recession, “the vast majority of health care organizations expect their information technology budgets to grow during the next fiscal year, and this growth is driven primarily by a need to improve access to information for clinicians, the survey shows.” (CIOs Predict Future Trends, n.d) This improved access to information can be applied to patients as well, as the push towards cloud storage and record/test results access alleviates the need to wait, call, and require record searches from the physician’s staff. On the subject of streamlining access to the implementation to patient EHRs, 19% of

Partners is a little more than three years into a five year strategic plan of implementing an integrated, electronic health information system that will allow data sharing across the entire Partners network. It replaces disparate systems that are not sustainable and cannot support future healthcare goals (Partners eCare, n.d.b). Unofficially called eCare, the electronic system was designed through intense collaboration with Epic Systems. The design process finished one year ago. The first phase of the rollout is to replace the systems that support the revenue cycle, and then the clinical rollout follows (MGH Hotline, 2014). McLean Hospital is

The use of IT in the healthcare field has been a strategic focus for necessary improvement that stands to enable more cost effective, higher-quality, and far safer patient care according to the Committee on Data Standards for Patient Safety (2003). The National quality forum conceptualized the idea of meaningful use to the nursing fraternity and believed that they were the most critical link in patient care and health delivery and hence technology tools of EHR would be best used by them The purpose of the electronic health records was to improve the health of population, coordination of care, safety improvement in patients undergoing critical and long term care, and patient and family engagement in timely access of

Providers will have an explanation and a glimpse into outlook of future performance. As EHR is befitting to every provider’s practice, providers should have an understanding that EHR implementation will objectively promote their practice through considerable, and reasonable designs. In consideration of the status, providers quality of care, systems employed would be scrutinized, and evaluation of desirability to stay in touch with patients or potentially change in system processes. In addition, appraisal of current systems such as quality of documentation, work flow, and staff’s ability to fully utilize the systems would happen. Given the opportunity to swiftly access patient information from a central place, patient history, instant check of drug interactions and allergies and e-prescription would occur. Provider’s determination towards favorable choices and patient safety will continue because, instant communication of patient information, and alerts will occur. Furthermore, promotion of diagnostic and beneficial choices for patients will exist. Ideally, providers should have a grasp of how EHR will promote practice, resources available to manipulate through the entire

EHRs and related systems can be expensive to develop, implement, and support (Wager, Lee, & Glaser, 2013, p. 164). One way to overcome this barrier is by making sure the healthcare organization participates in incentives such as Medicare and Medicaid programs that reimburse a health care organization for using EHRs in a meaningful way. Organization and behavioral barriers include everything from lack of physician acceptance to changes in the workflow to differences in state licensing regulations (Wager, Lee, & Glaser, 2013, p. 165). You can overcome this barrier by helping the health care organization recognize that EHRs will bring about change in the workflow and process. This is a great time for readiness and planning by engaging all staff, which will allow them to become actively engaged in

EHR programs in the medical office has many advantages it is an upsurge in electronic social networking, instant communications, and demand for the immediate availability of information. When patients come to the medical clinic it can be stressful and sometimes frustrating, to deal with lost files, forms not completed, or when the patient is impatient. The new EHR program in medical offices will provide security, accessibility, and will be available when needed. Access to personal medical information across the internet has become a need, not only for healthcare providers, but also for the patients. EHR will bring tremendous benefits to patients care and to healthcare providers. It will bring enhanced accessibility to clinical information,

The problem the industry faces today is the lack of utilizing available IT resources within the healthcare organization. “As per the 2008 statistics in the NEJM article Electronic Health Records in Ambulatory Care - A National Survey of Physicians, NEJM 359:50-60, just four percent of physicians in the U.S. reported having an extensive, fully functional electronic-records system, and just thirteen percent reported having a basic system.” (Scot, 2015) The major implication of the problem is quality of care. Healthcare IT can help an organization improve medical efficiency, reduce costs, improve research, provide earlier detection and more.

EHR Interoperability is the ability of one computer system to communicate with another computer system. Example: When buying a cell phone with a plan. Level zero would be only one phone but with level 3 it would be 3 phones. They would all share the same data plan and be able to communicate with each other. It benefits the patient because they can have access to their medical records without going to the doctor’s office. It also benefits the providers because they don’t have to make phone calls to other offices or track down information they need when its available in the EHR.

Peter B. Southard, Soongoo Hong, Keng Siau Department of Management College of Business Administration University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, NE 68588-0491 USA