...Healthcare Information Systems Management Name Institution Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Health Records In the modern world, every sector aspires to adopt computerization. The health sector is not an exemption and I would state that the health sector has made tremendous steps to adopt the electronic health records (Gungor, 2011). Electronic health records has some advantages and disadvantages as explained below. The Benefits of Electronic Health Records Reduction in Human Errors It is eminent that the electronic medical records have played a very vital role in reducing the chances of human errors in maintaining the health records. The health records that are created by electronic data are in electronic form. They are not stored in the files as it was the case with the old record keeping methods. There is less handling of electronic health records as compared to the manual health records (Gungor, 2011). This eliminates the chances of human error which occur when incompetent persons handle health records. Errors of misplaced files are eliminated. Safety and Security Electronic medical records provide a safe and secure way of storing information. Medical records are very essential and have to be stored safely. Electronic medical records can be duplicated easily and stored in computer systems (Gungor, 2011). This is unlike the paper files which can easily get lost, or damaged by natural disasters or even stolen...
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...The federal government has mandated that all medical records need to be converted to electronic form by 2014. Providers also have to prove their meaningful use of electronic medical records. Starting in 2015, Medicare and Medicaid payments will be reduced, starting at 1% for not complying with this mandate. Federal grants and funding were made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to assist health care providers to adopt electronic medical record format. As a result of the mandate there have been numerous articles that have been published by medical and trade journals. The articles cover a wide range of topics as they relate to electronic medical records covering topics such as cost, benefits, cons, patient safety, human error, and federal requirements. This is brief summary of some of the available articles as they relate to health care delivery and electronic medical records. Annotated Bibliography Amatayakul, Margret. (2010, December) Healthcare financial management : journal of the Healthcare Financial Management Association, ISSN 0735-0732, 12/2010, Volume 64, Issue 12, p. 104, 106. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy. apollolibrary.com/docview/1019985327 This article provides six steps of implementation for electronic health record. The model mirrors the steps of implementation developed by James Prochaska; however, the model was specifically tailored for electronic health record implementation. The process could be used by any facility...
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...improve the management of patient information is not new. Research into the implementation of health care information systems spans more than thirty years at a cost of millions of dollars (Zheng, McGrath, Hamilton, Tanner, White, Pohl, 2009). In spite of those costly efforts, patient records continue to be primarily paper-based. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) (1991) of the National Academy of Sciences recognized the magnitude of the problems associated with paper medical records systems and called for the adoption of computer-based patient records (CPR) or electronic medical records (EMR) as the standard for all patient records by the year 2001. EMR systems have been shown to have value in patient care; they are not widely used by clinicians in community-based practice. Although there are barriers to the productive use of EMR systems in primary care and there are situations in which such systems have failed, there are early adopters of this technology who have successfully implemented the systems and made them an integral part of their organizations. Gaining better understanding of the usefulness of EMR systems and how they might be broadly utilized and successfully implemented in the community-based practice environment requires further investigation. Identifying, analyzing, and understanding certain organizational factors that contribute to the use and acceptance of EMR among health care providers in ambulatory care, community-based settings will add to a presently insufficient...
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...Drawbacks and Benefits of Electronic Medical Records Mia M. Carter AIU Online International September 7, 2013 Abstract This paper will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using electronic medical record systems for the patients /clients and the providers. Since 2009 the Stimulus package was signed into law, which it represents one of the largest American initiatives to this date that is supposed to encourage a large widespread use of EMRs., (Nir Menachemi & Taleah Collum, 2011). Drawbacks and Benefits of Electronic Medical Records This paper will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using electronic medical record systems for the patients /clients and the providers. Since 2009 the Stimulus package was signed into law, which it represents one of the largest American initiatives to this date that is supposed to encourage a large widespread use of EMRs, (Nir Menachemi & Taleah Collum, 2011). Electronic Medical Records gives ways on various aspects of clients and patient’s care that is prescribed. This sort of storing information on medical history and health related information is being stored in digital format other than on traditional paper, (Henry Schein, 2013). Some ways provider’s benefits from electronic medical record system are evaluation and immediate retrieval at the provider’s and other qualified staff fingertips, (Henry Schein, 2013). Some other benefits for providers and other medically approved staff are operating and financial...
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...Future Trends in Health Care Future Trends in Health Care The use of a telemedicine can be incorporated in any electronic health record system, with the proper applications patient can be seen face-to-face or in person with a documented assessment or evaluation being conducted simultaneously. The important use of telemedicine is to increase productivity however, many health care professionals can evaluate just as many patient via EHR as they can in person without the use of an EHR. According to the Journal of American Medicine Association, “the role of telemedicine in medical practice is yet to be defined. Even now, it ranges from simple teleconference (a means of communication) to remote surgery (a new modality).” (JAMA, 1995) The EHR (Electronic Health Record) is an electronic record of a patient’s health information that can be generated by one or more departments in the health care delivery system. The health record includes patient address, phone numbers, religion, ethnicity, history and physical, lab tests, lab results and progress notes of their medical information over a period of time. “The EHR has the ability to generate a complete record of a clinical patient encounter-as well as supporting other care-related activities directly or indirectly via interface- including evidence-based decision support, quality management, and outcomes reporting.” (HIMSS, 2009) The EHR main goals should be to help guide the health professional to...
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...Health care facilities document normally document their patients in a physical chart. However, now with the growth in technology and resources, charts are being documented electronically in a computer driven format. This helps with billing, patient data, storage, and use evidence towards their treatment plans. The electronic medical records (EMRs) are going to change the way many people live or how many people are treated. EMRs are changing the way many health care facilities function. This is why I decided on the topic of health records in electronic format. The new computer formatting is going to change how medicine is practiced, communicated with other providers, and how billing is processed. EHRs are designed to help make health care facilities function easily and quickly. According to Fetter (2009), EHRs are to have eight functions. They are health information data, result management, order management, decision support, electronic communication and connectivity, patient support, administrative processing and reporting, reporting and population health. These eight functions are necessary in my work facility. I work in an outpatient physical therapy office. We use and electronic system called Therapy Source. Therapy Source gives us the tools for electronic communication and connectivity, and administrative processing and reporting. Therapy Source allows us to input patient data, put in over the counter payments, do billing and charges, and note documentation...
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...community members. This merge will not only introduce a new host of patients and providers but has proven to be an opportune time for a shift in administrative function to meet the growing needs. This merge will not only allow additional facility space and make it user friendly for individuals with limited mobility. The total square footage total is 42,000 with 8,000 square feet for service delivery. The merge has identified the need for an overall increase in efficiency in administrative function to therefore reflect the quality of care patients receive. Currently UCPGB is utilizing paper-based medical record systems which however has been functional yet with the increase in population served other means of record keeping are being researched. Electronic Medical Records, a byproduct of the advancement of technology has been the leading contender in order to garner an efficient system and increase the quality of care patients receive. UCPGB provides family Medicine, physical medicine and rehabilitation, exercise and physical therapy, speech language pathology, occupational therapy, optometry, and dental medicine. The current population that UCPGB cares for utilize majority of the services provided. Each specialty is managed in various ways and run in different settings. This has posed as a challenge in the past as to how providers communicate with one another in terms of the patients they...
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...Material Health Care Information Systems Terms Define the following terms. Your definitions must be in your own words; do not copy them from the textbook. After you define each term, describe in 40 to 60 words the health care setting in which each term would be applied. Include at least two research sources to support your position—one from the University Library and the other from the textbook. Cite your sources in the References section consistent with APA guidelines. |Term |Definition |How It Is Used in Health Care | |Health Insurance Portability and |The HIPAA Act was established in 1996 to |The Health Insurance Portability and | |Accountability Act |protect personal, identifiable information |Accountability Act is used in health care | | |of patient’s from third parties not |by patients having to sign a HIPAA form | | |involved in the treatment of the patient. |that makes patients aware of their rights | | | |and the protection of their individual | | | |protected health information. | |Electronic medical record |Electronic medical records are patient...
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...Health Information Technology (HIT) is becoming increasingly useful and implemented more frequently by health care providers throughout the United States. This technology may include Electronic Health Records (EHR) or Electronic Medical Records (EMR). The shift towards implementing Electronic Health Records has a significant influence on the quality of care provided by health care providers; however, some providers still stick to the basic paper documentation due to skepticism and disregard the benefits to adopting new technologies. Many questions arise when a health care provider is interested in adopting EHR’s, such as why adopt EHR’s? What are the benefits of EHR’s in relation to paper documentation? What steps need to be taken in order to adopt and implement EHR’s? What barriers will be encountered during the decision making process and how will these barriers be addressed? A health practice interested in adopting and implementing an EHR system must establish priorities, identify potential risks and how to avoid or overcome these risks, outweigh the pros and cons, set goals, and adhere to strict guidelines to ensure adopting a successful system. The terms Electronic Health Records (EHR) and Electronic Medical Records (EMR) are often used interchangeably by health care providers when in fact there is a subtle difference between EHRs and EMRs. Electronic Medical Records and Electronic Medical Records are both digital versions of a patient’s medical history and information;...
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...did these influence the decision to adopt an EMR at SHC? What other reasons were influential? EMR: - EMR stands for electronic medical record. It is primarily employed at an institution that provides health care facilities i.e. at a hospital or at a physician’s clinic. Its primary purpose is to improve the communication among different departments of a hospital to increase productivity, to minimize errors and to improve customer care. Main Characteristics: - One of the main characteristics of EMR is its cohesive bond with information and technology (IT). The reason for employing IT is to make sure that all the organizational information stored in hospital’s mainframe can be communed to particular departments, which need particular information. Of course this approach takes technical expertise of people associated with IT and additional expenses, but on the bright side it decreases all the other costs i.e. cost of paper based information system. Thus, decreases the errors and mishaps by a considerable margin and saves a lot of time that can be utilized in other areas of the hospital to increase productivity. Potential Benefits of EMR: - Time Saving: EMR is most beneficial when it comes to time saving. In times of recession, where many hospitals are closing down or going bankrupt, EMR comes as life saver in maintaining and obtaining patient records. It is particularly helpful in times of quarantine and medical panics where manually trying to get patient information...
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...reconciliation at patient’s transfer into our facility to 90% within 6 months. TEAM MEMBERS AND ROLES Team Member Role/Importance Medical Director Acts as the sponsor of the project and provides accountability for the team members. Serves as the executive link providing resources and helping the team overcome barriers. He is also the team's clinical leader because he has the authority to implement the change and understands the implications of the proposed changes to the system. Pharmacist The pharmacist has technical expertise on drug therapy and can improve safety by identifying duplications in medication regime and possible medication interactions. Also serves to help review medications if a physician is not familiar with them. Registered Nurse Serves as a project driver by...
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...Justin Green HCS/483 » Health Care Information Systems 9/22/2015 Dr. Swafford, Richard Introduction When implementing an electronic health care system into our hospital we must understand the privacy risks, security safeguards, and strategies for evaluating the effectiveness of the system being put in place. When we understand these important elements of our electronic healthcare system we will be able to put in place the best suited information system for our hospital’s needs. The system we decide on will dictate the success that our hospital has in the coming years, so it is clear to see that this is a decision that cannot be made without addressing all aspects of the potential vendor. Safeguarding our hospital Even though there are risks involved in instituting an electronic healthcare system, the benefits are truly great if the correct system is applied. According to a study done by the National Library of Medicine “An individual's PHR (public health record) can only be useful if the person understands the importance of maintaining and coordinating health-related documentation and activities with health care providers. Consumer-related interface, technology, and access issues specific to PHRs are not yet well understood.” There are safeguards that are federally mandated to help keep information’s systems, hospitals, and patients safe from any information leak. According to Health IT.gov “The Health Insurance Portability and...
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...computerised health information systems (Health professionals should be closely involved in implementation)Joel Ladner Editor—Littlejohns et al identified the reasons for failure to implement a hospital information system in South Africa,1 but they do not emphasise the need for health professionals to be closely involved. In 1997 we conducted a field test of prototype tools and information flows over six months, with the overall goal of developing a computerised health information system at the three university teaching hospitals (totalling 1500 beds) in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. In each hospital the system was managed by a team from the administrative department, without a hospital doctor or trained epidemiologist. Before the field test, in five voluntary clinical departments in each hospital, administrative staff underwent intensive training for three weeks. Project presentation workshops with clinicians and nurses were organised in all hospitals, and a ministry of health supervisory team (epidemiologists) was responsible for technical implementation and follow up. After six months the assessment showed a major failure in implementing the system for three main reasons: * Heavy administrative workload generated by management's inadequate medical and epidemiological education * Limited involvement of medical teams, possibly because of the responsibilities attributed to the administrative departments * Difficulty perceived among practitioners of implementing a health information...
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...contrasting Sentara Health System 2010 and Eastern Maine Medical Center 2008 Davies Organizational Award Minerva Ndikum Medical Informatics 6208 DE PhD Philip Aspden This paper compares and contrasts eight different views of two winners of Davies enterprise award. The HIMSS Nicholas E. Davies award recognizes excellence in the implementation and use of health information technology, specifically electronic health records (EHRs), for healthcare organizations, private practices, public health systems, and community health organizations. The Award honors Dr. Nicholas E. Davies, an Atlanta-based practicing physician, president-elect of the American College of Physicians, and a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Improving the Patient Record, who died in 1991 in a plane crash. This paper will compare and contrast the eight difference, the process by which each organization decided to implement an EHR, the goals of each implementation, the governance process for planning and implementation and how stakeholders were involved in each case, the functionality that was implemented in each case, including clinical decision support tools and data sharing with external organizations, how security and data integrity issues were addressed in each case, how user satisfaction with the implementation in each case was addressed and give the results, and how each implementation’s success in meeting the original goals of Sentara healthcare system who won the award...
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...Lesson Plan: Electronic Medical Charting NUR/588 May 19, 2014 Bianca Needham Professor Gail Wolf Identification of the educational need and rationale: The implementation of electronic documentation for medical records, medications, and nursing flow sheets has replaced the existing paper documentation and is currently the educational need with the highest priority for the Emergency Department at the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center. In a continuous care operation, it is critical to document each patient’s condition and history of care, to ensure the patient receives the best available care. The medical record documents the care of the patient and can immediately be accessed, updated, and passed among the interdisciplinary team of caregivers. The Emergency Department is the initial passageway to the hospital for most patients. Electronic documentation is a patient’s health information including medications, allergies, past and present illnesses, and family history can be gathered upon their initial presentation and up-to-the minute revisions can be made by the healthcare team throughout their hospital stay. The Electronic Medical Record/Charting can be designed to hold collaborative information from all providers that are involved in the patients’ care. With each subsequent visit thereafter, the patient’s demographic, insurance, and health history database will automatically pre-fill the electronic template alleviating nurses of time restraints...
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