SNOMED, The Systemized Nomenclature Of Medicine

In Radiology, there is not too many codes used within the department. However, when a doctor orders an exam, often times they

“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)

CYANOTIC: A patient who has cyanosis, or a slight bluish discoloration of the skin due to the presence of abnormal amounts of reduced hemoglobin in the blood

A current problem with SNOMED CT is concept ID. Concept IDs give a medical term (Patient or Scalpel) an ID. This language can be confusing, and when there is confusion, quality of care and higher costs of health care can occur. When concept IDs are created, there needs to be a hierarchy so that each version can be kept track of the specific relation. Commonalities in the concept IDs can create a problem with SNOMED CT; the new concept model was created to figure out how to solve the issue or make it explicit. In addition to Concept IDs, uninformative codes are another problem with SNOMED CT.

How data is captured varies from institution to institution. In order for data to be well understood, data should have a definition that is consistent and comprehensively understood by all users of the data. Standardization of how data is captured is critical to allow the production and export of data needed to support quality assessment, decision support, exchange of data for patients with multiple health care providers and public health surveillance. Patient safety and quality improvement are dependent upon embedded clinical guidelines that promote standardized, evidence-based practices. Unless we can achieve standardization with terminology, technologies, apps and devices, the goals of EHR implementation will not become a

“… longitudinal electronic record of patient health information generated by one or more encounters in any care delivery setting”. Included in this information are patient demographics… reports. The EHR automates and streamlines the clinician 's workflow. The EHR has the ability to generate a complete record of a clinical patient encounter, and related activities directly or indirectly via interface—including evidence-based decision support, quality management, and outcomes reporting.”(GAO, 2010)

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

Diagnostic coding is one of the most critical parts of medical coding. If the correct diagnostic code is not selected, a claim may be denied (Deborah Vines, 2013, pp. 88-125). Using the ICD-9-CM, diagnosis coding became mandatory for Medicare claims since the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988. In 1948, the ICD came under the direction of the World Health Organization, which assisted in tracking deaths and sicknesses to help make statistical assessments of international health and disease trends (Deborah Vines, 2013, pp. 88-125). Medical terminology plays a key role in proper diagnosis coding. You must be able to read and understand the physician’s documentation to identify the appropriate codes for medical conditions that pertain

SNODENT is a clinical terminology that is used with EHR’s this enables and capture the analysis, aggregation of the detailed health data. When it comes to comprehensive data recording it will Enables SNODENT’s clinicians, academics and researches to record in total details when it comes health data, when it comes to using a combination that has a standard clinical documents that is advanced by HL7 it can transcend for the care setting there are many conditions, findings that other clinical may find with in SNODENT. Recognizing codes for EHR is a subset for SNODENT which is the best choice for any clinical vocabulary for EHR Systems. The eligibility when it comes to Medicare and Medicaid is required to use SNODENT as SNOMED-CT which is required terminology for the certified EHR Systems. The benefits that can include better communication when it comes to health care providers is to improve patient care that is based on the practice, enhance data collection to evaluate that patient care outcomes and to address any complex issues to better data research and to support evidence based on the practice, being able to enhance on the public health reporting and their standard of care. The system Systematized Nomenclature of Dentistry is to classify clinical terminology for dentistry. This can be used in the connection with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Electronic Health Records (EHR) and Meaningful Use Incentives programs. Which it contains over 7000 distinct

In the past, doctors have used old ways of writing prescriptions and keeping health records. The days of the doctor writing a prescription on a pad in handwriting only they can read are over. Also, electronic health records make accessing records a breeze. The doctor’s experience now is much easier now with implementations of virtual prescription, electronic health records, and the ability to speak with a doctor from the comfort of your own home. In the future, the experience will be made a lot easier by taking the human doctor out of the equation and providing a program that scans someone and comes up with a diagnosis within seconds.

The articles by Branstetter, Bartholmai and Channin (2004) and Kohli, Dreyer and Geis (2015) make an important contribution to the knowledge base of radiology informatics. The overall delivery of health care has benefited greatly from the technology explosion that has affected almost every industry. This benefit has been highly visible in the practice of radiology. The introductions of radiology information systems, voice recognition dictation systems, and picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) led to significant advancements in workflow efficiencies. To this end, both articles examine informatics innovations of the past several decades that have immensely enhanced

In today’s complex and highly competitive environment, clinicians struggle with finding a defining edge in quality of care, patient satisfaction, and affordability. To respond to these needs physicians are looking for better tools to record information, assist in clarifying issues, provide comparative results over time, become more affordable, improve workflow and procedural process, and share information with outside partnering organizations. Clinical technologies have come a long way to help answer some of these needs. These technologies have become more precise, functional, focused and mobile. They are perceived in many circles as valuable and necessary in the practice of modern medicine. Moreover, the use of clinical

Standardized terminologies were created to be use within the electronic health record (EHR). “Standardized terminologies are

When the electronic health record is coded, it can be utilized for trending, alerts (warnings or signs), health maintenance, and decision support. It can be recognized correctly and electronically distinguished by way of the computer. Document image data must have an individual to look at and understand the information. Also, codes remove uncertainties about the physician’s meaning and diagnosis. It’s very crucial and essential to document a code acknowledging the clinical data as well as to the explanation of the text. A documentation is referred to as codified when the code is saved in the patient’s electronic health record. A codified electronic health record is more beneficial because it classifies the medical provider’s results or treatments.

Electronic Health Records: Understanding and Using Computerized Medical Records, 2nd Edition, by Richard Garlee, Published by Prentice Hall, 2012, Pearson Education, Inc.