The Importance Of Communication In Communication

Electronic health records can lessen the disintegration of care by refining care coordination. The use of electronic health records will deliver providers with accurate information. This is especially important for those that see multiple specialists, and enable a smooth transition between care settings and receive treatment in emergency

Care coordination is key in the new value-based healthcare market. Poor follow-up care plans often lead to readmission penalties and decreased patient satisfaction evaluations. Before, if a patient sought care in an urgent care center, that information may have never made it back to the patient’s

But as noted previously, more is needed than standardizing these processes. Health care providers (physicians and hospitals) should embrace electronic health records (EHRs) and should integrate appropriate information from billing systems with clinical information (the recording and analysis of clinical services) from EHRs (Wikler et al., 2012; Cutler et al., 2012). To address concerns that occur due to accessing medical records, the secretary of health and human services could expand criteria under the Health information Technology for Economic and Clinical

Care coordination is an integral part of current health care models, including the Patient Centered Medical Home Model. There are various sources that show the benefit of care coordination efforts in improving

The problem is fragmented electronic health records (EHRs) that lack communication and availability. Interoperability does not benefit the patient or the healthcare provider. “In healthcare, interoperability is the ability of different information technology systems and software applications to communicate, exchange data, and use the information

The cons of an EHR are part of the driving force behind the model restricted from the need to integrate EHRs throughout the health system and share information with network of referring hospitals. However, this sharing of information is often not possible (EHR,2013). Finding a hospital partner that is willing to open the lines of communication is critical to the success. The cost associated with EHRs is often a deterrent. Not only must the provider pay for the physical hardware and/or software, the organization must also put forth a considerable dollar amount for setup, maintenance, training, IT support and system updates (EHR,2013). With EHRs, much more documentation is required of physicians before, during and after a patient visit. This has its pros and cons. For example, a benefit of more strong documentation is that it provides additional information for the coders that may justify a higher level of service being billed(EHR,2013).

Today, the patient will visit the same doctor and the doctor will enter the data into a tablet or pc. The EHR is a designed very similar to the paper chart, but is programmed to collect and segregate the information in different formats to transmit securely to the necessary partners. Those partners include insurance carriers, public health entities, clearinghouses, laboratories, and pharmacist. This data is collected and stored on secure servers. In most EHR’s today, a doctor who has a private practice, and maybe affiliated with a hospital has the ability to allow the hospital to access a patient’s record, if that patient has agreed to release their information to the hospitals. So if the patient is taken to the local hospital, the hospital can have access to the patient’s records if an authorization is in place. The EHR will not only collect the patient medical information, it will track the medical information. Providers are required to secure the information and track the medical records activity via a built-in audit system that will show the medical records history and the name of all parties that access the patient’s records. Poor EHR system design and improper use can cause EHR-related errors that jeopardize the integrity of the information in the EHR, leading to errors that endanger patient safety or decrease the quality of care. These unintended consequences also may increase fraud and abuse and can have

Another beneficial feature of EHR systems is that they allow different authorized professionals to access your information from anywhere at any point in time. If a patient checks into the Emergency Room, is moved to Radiology for imaging, then moved to Orthopedics for surgery and finally placed in a bed for recovery, each individual throughout that process will have access to that patient’s medical records without having to communicate with each department. This fosters an

In today’s fragmented healthcare system, clinical decisions are made based on the available information. Unfortunately, the available information is not always complete. Patients have been using an increasing number of providers and health systems, many of which have no way to effectively communicate clinical information. This forces healthcare providers to make decisions based on incomplete information at the cost of outcomes to the patients and dollars to the health system. It is estimated that the use of health information exchange (HIE) could save $78 billion in healthcare costs per year (Shortliffe, 2014, p425). A concerted effort to solve this problem began in 2009, when The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology

One of the challenges would be advances in healthcare technology - there are evidences of Difficulties in implementation of cross-continuum electronic health records, which are mostly attributed to the lack of resources. With the newer reimbursement model, it is essential for an integrated network to have a vast network of information. It should be able to collect, maintain and provide applicable access to administrative, clinical and financial data in order to supervise quality and costs while providing patient-centered care.

According to AHRQ (2008) care coordination is an associated concept that represents the transition among two particular care settings. It encompasses the collaboration of providers and health plan administrators through a variation of care settings to ensure optimal patient care (p. 6). Therefore, respectable care outcomes are in need of admirable coordinated communication among providers. The lack in connectivity between providers in the health care system has risen to the national consciousness. According to Wolfe (2001), the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report emphasizes that health care quality suffers because of the lack in effective treatments and insufficient health care delivery systems that fail to exploit these treatments. Disjointed

Both hospitals and physicians can sustain current tactics based on fee-for-service payment, avoid the up-front costs of care coordination, and permit diminishing reimbursement. Physicians will take home less income and hospitals will see their margins shrink. Because this option is very uneffective and futile, physicians have come up with a slightly more functional approach to improve the integrated- physician-model. The next choice is to work on improving care coordination, but within their corresponding silos. A physician group could develop a medical home model to coordinate care within its practice population.

“Attention should be given to assessing the impact of new methods of organizing the delivery of health care services, adoption of electronic information systems, and health reform provisions that will test and reward health care organizations that are accountable for achieving better outcomes, higher quality, and lower costs” (Davis, 2012). Only collaboration between payers and physicians, with a focus on improving the health outcomes of patients will bend the projected cost curve set forth.

“An electronic health record (EHR) is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users.” (healthit.gov) The EHR mandate was created “to share information with other health care providers and organizations – such as laboratories, specialists, medical imaging facilities, pharmacies, emergency facilities, and school and workplace clinics – so they contain information from all clinicians involved in a patient’s care.” ("Providers & Professionals | HealthIT.gov", n.d., p. 1) The process has proved to be quite challenging for providers. As an

About 75 million Americans suffer from multiple chronic conditions, which means they require multiple providers for their care. HIEs is the key like these situations for proper diagnosis and there should be adequate communications between the providers. They require communication or exchange of data for coordination of care for this patient. In these instances, health care providers and patients frequently lack pertinent and useful information where treatment decisions are made. In today 's advanced technology, EHRs offer the substantial part to capture and share health information. The vendors, IT developers, and coordinators of health