The Electronic Health Record System

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 discussion board is to describe the Electronic Health Record (EHR), the six steps of an EHR and how my facility implements them, describe “meaningful use” and how my facility status is in obtaining it, and to further discuss the EHR’s and patient confidentiality.

The Role of Electronic Health Records and Health Information Exchange in the Delivery of Quality Healthcare

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

Paper-based health records have existed since the time of Hippocrates. The most significant change in paper-based health records occurred in the 20th century with the development of electronic health records (EHRs), due to evolution of technology (Rocha & Rocha, 2014). The development of EHRs began in the mid-1960s. Since that time, EHRs have continued to advance. Many institutions are now placing a greater effort in the utilization of this advancing technology (Atherton, 2011). The main purpose of EHRs is to increase efficiency of care and organize and improve quality of data storage through new resources and applications (Rocha & Rocha, 2014). EHRs play a vital role in the healthcare system, patient care, and

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

In the modern world technology is everywhere and it affects everyone’s daily life. People are constantly attached to cell phones, laptops, and other electronics, which all have affected how people live their lives. Technology is also a large part of the healthcare system today. There are many electronics and technologies that are used in health care, such as electronic health record, medication bar code scanning, electronic documentation, telenursing, and there are many more forms of technology that impact nursing. One technology that stands out is the electronic health record. The electronic health record, also referred to as EHR, is an electronic version of a patient’s chart, and it contains is a list of the patient’s current medications, allergies, laboratory results, diagnoses, immunization dates, images, treatments, and medical history (“Learn EHR Basics,” 2014). The purpose of the electronic health record is to have a patient’s health care record available to health care providers nationwide, but the patient can decide who has access to their record (Edwards, Chiweda, Oyinka, McKay, & Wiles, 2011). The electronic health record is a very important technology in health care and it impacts nurses, nursing care, and has a significant impact on patient outcomes.

The federal government established a nationwide health information technology (HIT) infrastructure which requires all health care facility personnel to use an electronic health record (EHR). According to Sewell & Thede, in 2004, President Bush called for adoption of interoperable electronic health records for most Americans by 2014. Electronic health records (EHR) is an automated system created by healthcare providers or organizations, such as a hospital in documenting patient care. In addition, EHR is an interoperable healthcare record that can comprise of multiple EMRs data and the personal health record (PHR). Furthermore, electronic health records can be created, managed, and accessed by approved clinicians and staff across more than one health care society (Sewell & Thede, 2013, p. 231-232). On the patients’ perspective, EHR will be used to support healthcare by providing electronic record of patients’ vital signs, demographics, allergies, medications, diagnoses, and smoking status. Consequently, on the providers’ perspective, EHR will support healthcare by use of decision support tools, enter clinical orders, such as prescriptions, provide patients with electronic versions of their health information, use systems that protect the privacy and security of HER patient data. Another meaningful use of EHR is to support activities such as conducting drug formulary checks, including clinical laboratory test results, recording advance directions for patient 65 years and

I understand your concerns regarding the legality of the electronic signature. Electronic health record system have many policies and rules that must be followed in both state government and federal. In 2000 the U.S. Government passed a law that gave electronic signature the same legality as written signature. It doesn’t mean that its signed electronically that anyone can access it and sign it for you. Your signature authentication requires a password, biometric, and unique code this identifies that its you who is the signer in the system. If someone tries to access any documents to sigh them they will not be allowed because the system will not recognize it if it wasn’t you. To be save there are passwords that go along.

Moving from a paper-based platform to a digital one is a significant decision. Allowing patient access to personal EHRs empowers patients, minimizes physician error, and reduces cost. Although EHRs offer many significant benefits, the future demand that their risk be recognized and managed over time. This means they must consider not only the financial barriers, but also the technical, time, privacy and change process concerns that patients and provider have on electronic health records. Leadership, teamwork, flexibility, and adaptability are keys to finding better solutions. Electronic health records must be maximized in order to improve the quality, safety, efficient and effectiveness of health

Electronic health records (EHRs) are a mainstay of HIT, and, since the passage of the HITECH Act in 2009, almost all hospitals and most physician practices have adopted some sort of EHR. Benefits of EHRs fall into 3 major categories: 1) quality, outcomes, and safety, 2) efficiency, productivity, and cost reduction, and 3) service and satisfaction. Many challenges to adoption and usage of EHRs exist. High cost associated with the adoption and maintenance of EHRs can be a limiting factor to their adoption. Technical issues, such as lack of controlled terminology can affect the capturing of clinical data. Another technical barrier is user familiarity with computers. Older users are more likely to resist incorporation of computers into their workflow

The electronic healthcare record system is a new form of technology that help nurses and doctors with their jobs every day. Electronic healthcare records, or EHRs, are a digital record of patient’s medical history from many different hospitals or clinics (Huston, 2013). Arizona College (2015) claims that “ by 2013, eighty percent of hospitals have implemented the use of EHRs for accessing, processing, and storing patient information”. People rely on these medical records to be at every hospital or clinic they go to and the EHRs make it possible. “The EHR is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week and has a built in safeguard to assure patient health information confidentiality and security” (Huston, 2013). This 24 hour access allows all nurses

“Electronic health record systems enable hospitals to store and retrieve detailed patient information to be used by health care providers, and sometimes patients, during a patient’s hospitalization, over time, and across care settings.” (Silow-Carroll, Edwards, and Rodin, 2012, n.p.). All of these possibilities that EHRs bring and more are partly why electronic health records are so important. This paper will discuss why we need electronic health records, the advantages and disadvantages, the importance of electronic health records, and how they are more useful in today’s society. To learn more about EHRs and the role they play in our health care system, we must first understand what they are.

An Electronic Health Record (EHR) is a methodical group of EHR about an single patient or multiple patients. It is a record in digital data format that is theoretically able to being shared across distinct health care systems and doctors. In some casing this division can be occur by way of networks systems and other information networks or exchange systems. EHRs may consists verity of data, contain demographics, medical history, medication and allergies, immunisation status, work place test results, radiology images, vital mark, personal numeral number similar age and weight, and billing message. Methodology used behind this is to take the dissimilar images from dissimilar medical Equipment like EEG, ECG, Dental, CT Scan, X-ray machine as input images for the processing & storing into the database. The image product data format of these machines is distinct in data format. OSCAR EMR system takes these images as input & translate it into the proper JPEG or PNG format. Converted image are stored in MySql databank server by using the DICOM. The Scan Image if already blurred images then it need do processing. The Image Enhancement & noise removal is done by using Median Filtering in OpenCV. The Web browser page is design & Program in Java Script. The Image processing is done in OpenCV by using the Python scripting.