The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act made an investment in the year 2009 to encourage the adoption and implementation of the electronic health records (EHRs)(Cite). EHRs incentive payments were authorized through Medicare and Medicaid to clinicians and hospitals when they privately and securely used EHRs for achieving improvements in care delivery by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH). The healthcare organizations are expected to demonstrate meaningful use of EHRs. This rule of meaningful use has been implemented to strike a balance between acknowledging the urgency of adopting EHRs for improving the healthcare system and identifying the challenges that would be put forth
Besides the disadvantages of (EMR)’s the advantages pose great benefits to patient care and efficiency. The greater use of electronic medical records or health records can reduce wait times, of seeing doctors or waiting for test results. All staff would need to cohesively work out the technical challenges and software data. With sophisticated IT
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 was signed into law with an explicit purpose of incentivizing providers (e.g., physicians and hospitals) to adopt EHR systems. The HITECH Act of 2009 is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (“stimulus package”). However, given that a bare EHR system provides only partial benefits to patients and society, the HITECH Act requires that providers adopt EHRs and utilize them in a “meaningful” way, which includes using certain EHR functionalities associated with error reduction and cost containment. How do EHRs improve care? What evidence proves that certain EHR “meaningful use” functionalities will translate into benefits? The purpose of this paper is to answer these questions. Impacts include both benefits and drawbacks, and, as such, I will discuss the advantages that have been identified by researchers. Overall, any reader interested in understanding the current state of the knowledge base with regard to EHR benefits will find this paper
The passage of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) Act “encouraged healthcare organizations and providers to adopt and effectively utilize certified electronic health records (EHRs)” (Conrad, Hanson, Hansenau, & Stocker-Schneider, 2012, p. 443). In addition, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) instituted Meaningful Use (MU) as a form of “incentive programs that governs the use of EHRs and allow eligible providers and hospitals to earn incentive payments by meeting specific criteria” (Yoder-Wise, 2014, p. 195). Consequently, as cited by Berfeld and Parker (2010) “Adoption of computers in care and an electronic medical record (EMR) within healthcare organizations is no longer an option, but a necessity for safe and cost effective provision of care” (p. 17).
Achievements in public health and technology have created growth in the health care industry. Significant advances in prevention as well as declines in death rates have created a need for a more sophisticated system of record keeping. While monitoring the health of the nation, planning and developing better health services, and delivering effective and efficient care is now more important than ever. The need to manage patient data has increased as well. Moving from a world where paper records are kept in file cabinets, to implementing a system where documents are stored and maintained on computers and accessed through EMR systems is a complicated procedure for a large system, let alone the smaller independent practices that still
By now, many organizations have adopted the electronic health record (EHR) to realize its benefits to health care delivery. In an effort to comply with the Affordable Health Care Act and the meaningful use (MU) mandates, this health information technology (HIT) was also updated to include analytics and management systems. Overall, Kudyba (2016) stressed that the national goal, as described by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), is to create a safe, efficient, timely, patient-centered, affordable, and quality health care system. While the HIT has promising makings to deliver good results, Kudyba (2016) also mentioned that physicians lack the patience and commitment to utilize HIT in its full potential. To test its
Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009 empowered the federal department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to establish programs to improve health care quality, safety, and efficiency through the promotion of health IT (Hersh et. al, 2015 &. HealthIT.gov, 2015). Such programs include among others provision of incentive funding for the establishment of electronic Health Records (EHR) and secure electronic health information exchange (HIE). This has resulted in substantial increase in the adoption of EHR in various healthcare settings that currently operates in silos. As such the use of these systems in management of patients particularly patients with multiple conditions has been a challenge(Hersh
Hoping to encourage health care organizations to move toward health information technology (HIT) and electronic health record (EHR) adoption faster, the federal government allocated more than $14.5 billion dollars in Meaningful Use incentives in the 2009 stimulus. On the surface, adoption numbers seem to suggest the stimulus was successful. Today, four out of five hospitals utilize EHRs, and almost as many office-based physicians (78%) have adopted some form of EHR system, according to 2013 stats released by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC). However, transforming the healthcare industry is more complicated than simply improving adoption rates.
For years now, the healthcare system in the United States have managed patient’s health records through paper charting, this has since changed for the better with the introduction of an electronic medical record (EMR) system. This type of system has helped healthcare providers, hospitals and other ambulatory institutions extract data from a patient’s chart to help expedite clinical diagnosis and providing necessary care. Although this form of technology shows great promise, studies have shown that this system is just a foundation to the next evolution of health technology. The transformation of EMR to electronic heath record system (EHR) is the ultimate goal of the federal government.
Furthermore, after achieving a computerized system in the documentation of patient information, it is important to stabilize and re-evaluate the change process. It is important the nurse leader, and the super users provide the staff with updates and ongoing education to keep abreast with the changes in the information technology platform. In other words to ensure success, information technology experts must be available at any deemed moment to address any issues resulting from the EMR system. Furthermore, clinical educators should also be availed to provide necessary training to new nurses and staffs. Still, the system must be in regulation to set standards and policies thus in evaluation compliance to set regulations as the HIPAA must be checked and necessary improvement made concerning information and data security.
Electronic Medical Records (EMR) are medical records that can be stored in a digital format. Everything is stored on the computer or on a cloud based system. There are no papers that the hospitals have to maintain, and all of their patients’ files can be looked up in mere seconds. For a long time, physicians have been debating the transition to EMRs. After president Barack Obama passed the “Health
While advancements in technology have positively impacted the nursing field, it has also created huge concerns with patient privacy and sharing of protected health information leading to detrimental effects to patients and their families. Indeed, technology is changing the face of healthcare with positive innovations to reduce medication errors and documentation errors. However, technology at our fingertips has created immense concerns with sharing of protected health information of patients via social media, email and other means of communication via technology. This paper addresses why I feel the advancement of technology has numerous deficits that need more research and implementation of new laws and policies to safeguard the
Medical technology encompasses a wide range of healthcare products and is used to diagnose, monitor, and treat diseases or medical conditions that affect humans. This may included but not limited too, pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and medical equipment. Such technologies are intended to improve the quality of healthcare delivered through earlier diagnosis, less invasive treatment options and reductions in hospital stays and rehabilitation times. Recent advances in medical technology have also focused on cost reduction. Medical technology may include medical devices, information technology, biotech, and healthcare services. The impacts of medical technology may involve social and ethical issues. For example physicians may seek objective information from technology rather than listening to subjective patient reports. A major contributor of healthcare expenditure in America is the advancement of medical technology. According to several studies it is shown that there is a correlation between the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) and money allocated to healthcare. One of the leading theories is that medical technology is growing faster than expected.
As healthcare changes to incorporate the use of many different information technologies to make delivering care easier and more efficient for patients as well as the healthcare team, the implementations of electronic medical records and electronic health care records have been the choice for many healthcare systems. An electronic medical record (EMR) is a digital version of a paper chart that contains all of a patient’s medical history from one practice. An EMR is
The article, IT-Based Capabilities, Service Innovation, and Quality in Health Care, focuses on how there have been many developments in technology which could be utilized to “effectively deliver services” within the health care industry (Thambusamy & Palvia, 2011, p. 1). Through innovation, health care facilities are expected to provide top quality care to patients. Technology has made that possible; however, prior to this study, it was unsure if the two had any correlation. The research that was conducted involves the term “service” in the health care industry (Thambusamy & Palvia, 2011, p. 1).