The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act promoted the adoption and meaningful use of health information technology. This Act enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. It encouraged the widespread use of electronic health records across the country; the largest in United States to date. The purpose of this paper will summarize the benefits of an Electronic Health Record. The three key functionalities of Electronic Health Records are computerized order entry systems, health information exchange and clinical decision support systems. Some benefits of an Electronic Health Records include: improved population health, improved quality, financial and operational benefits, the ability to conduct …show more content…
Patient demographics, medications, progress notes, vital signs, past medical history, immunizations, problems, radiology and laboratory data are amongst some of the information included in the record. Numerous errors have been eliminated due to the benefits of an Electronic Health Record system. Computerized physician order entry systems, clinical decision support system, and health information exchange have benefitted the implementation of Electronic Health Record systems, by showing reduction in costs and improving quality of care. These are the “meaningful use” criteria requirements set forth in the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009. First, a clinical decision support system provide assistance to the provider enabling him/her to make decisions. The clinical decision support system have several functions: to provide drug information, cross-reference patient 's allergies to medications, and ensures you verify current medications to prevent future drug interactions. With the continuous growth of medical expertise, these functions deliver a safer and a much higher quality of care. As more clinical decision support systems are used, the patient will receive the best …show more content…
Next, you have computerized physician order entry systems. Over the past decade, physicians would annotate in the patient’s chart to order blood draws, urine analysis or physical therapy. With the benefit of an computerized physician order entry system, physicians can enter these orders right into the computer, without worrying if the order was missed from the paper chart. This system as well, eliminate the medical errors caused by poor penmanship. Additionally, it creates a more efficient way to process orders in a timely manner, rather than staff waiting on physicians to clarify illegible orders. Past studies propose that medication errors can be lessened by as much as 55% when a computerized physician order entry system is utilized alone, and by 83% when combined with a clinical decision support system that makes cautions in light of what the doctor orders. Using a computerized physician order entry system, particularly when it is connected to a clinical decision support, can result in improved efficiency and effectiveness of care. A more recent study shows the number of appropriate medication orders increases with the involvement of dosing frequency or dosing levels using a computerized
Electronic Medical Records has several positive effects on the billing and coding process. For example, Electronic Medical Records helps to reduce cost for physicians and improve care for patients. Electronic Medical Records helps reduce medical errors for the physicians and unneeded diagnostic tests. The EMR can also help coordinate patient's information better such as diagnosis, medications, family history, and the test results of each patient on file. Electronic Medical Records helps to improve storing health information and EMR makes it easier to track results of each patient.
Interestingly, the findings from the review of literature shed light to the challenges nurses encounter with the implementation of electronic health records and identify areas for improvement that could be made in an effort to achieve the goals of the HITECH act. Based on the review of literature, overall, the electronic health record is seen as a positive aspect to assisting nurses in providing positive outcomes for patients. However, challenges still exist with the daily utilization of the EHR, with communication among healthcare providers and interdisciplinary teams. These challenges present nurses with great difficulty as they attempt to provide care to their patients. Because some nurses continue to struggle with utilizing the electronic
Electronic Health Records and Patient Confidentiality Technology has become an essential part of our everyday life therefore, it makes sense that doctors and hospitals get rid of the old fashioned paper charting and use technology to access patient records. Electronic health records (EHR) provide quick access to information, as doctors no longer have to wait for other providers to fax previous records to them. The accessibility of Electronic Health Records assist medical providers to make quick medical care decisions, by accessing previous care provided to patients including treatment and diagnosis. Quick access to information through EHR enables health care providers to treat patients faster as there is no need for records to be mailed or
Preventable medical mistakes cause approximately 200,000 deaths around the United States each year. (1) More than 1,000,000 Americans are negatively impacted by medication errors each year caused by inadvertent mistakes in the prescription filling process. With 4 out of 5 adults taking at least 1 medication daily and 1 out of 4 adults taking 5 or more medications daily nationwide, errors like these cost healthcare industry billions of dollars per year. Health information technology were developed to transform healthcare services, the way they are provided and compensated. Electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) becomes an internal part of that transformation process, which can be confirmed from annual Surescripts’ National Progress Report.
Communication is an important factor in determining patient outcomes, patient experiences, and healthcare costs, both positively and negatively. In fact, communication breakdown accounts for two thirds of sentinel events, the most serious of errors reported to the Joint Commission, making it the leading cause of medical errors (Starmer et al., 2014). The Institute of Medicine (1999) conservatively estimates that between 44,000 and 98,000 patients die each year from medical errors. More recent estimates predicted this number to be upwards of 400,000 deaths annually, making medical errors the third leading cause of death in the United States (Makary & Daniel, 2016). Miscommunication and handoff errors are the primary point these errors occur.
According to Davis & LaCour (2014), “one specific scenario highlighting the need for the EHRs occurred during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when millions of health records were displaced and destroyed, leaving patients without access to their medical records” (p. 66). Paper records are not as secure as electronic records are. Paper records are stored in file cabinet and electronic records are stored in database that have privacy settings to them. Elctronic records are also good for patients because a patient can logon to the database to see their records. If New Orleans would have used electronic records than many of their residents would not have lost medical
The ROI of EHRs article breaks down the importance of Electronic health records. Healthcare leaders need to have an open-mind about electronic health records to gain a better organized system. Health organizations spend billions trying to find a working system instead of changing to the electronic health records system. Most organizations are making their IT department play bigger role working along with physicians to make electronic health records a key component of healthcare facilities making EHRs an effective program. Electronic Health Records are important to improving the quality of care provided, being able to find a patients history of care at a click of a button.
“Electronic health information exchange (HIE) allows doctors, nurses, pharmacists, other health care providers and patients to appropriately access and securely share a patient’s vital medical information electronically—improving the speed, quality, safety and cost of patient care” (HealthIT, 2014). Health Information exchange is becoming important in the communication between providers to provide the best care possible to patients. Every state along with their hospitals has their own way of exchanging information between each other. South Carolina’s health information exchange is called “SCHIEx” (AHIMA, 2010). “SCHIEx provides a state-level information infrastructure for connecting local healthcare providers and other stakeholders” (AHIMA,
A beneficial EHR system will have great customer service, keep up on technological advances and good
Kaiser Permanente has been equipped since 2007 with Health Connect; which is the largest private electronic health record implementation in the world. This is a highly sophisticated electronic program that integrates inpatient, outpatient, and clinic medical records with appointments, registration, pharmacy, and billing for all kaiser members. In addition, this electronic program includes an entire medical library with a whole set of care support tools which are accessible to doctors, nursing staff and patients (Kaiser Permanente, n.d.). At kaiser permanente; nurses are expected to print out “the after-visit summary” (AVS), which contain the doctor recommendations for each patient that we see.
There has been a definite improvement in the United States in the adoption of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and its implementation in the last decade (2001-2011). A report by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that 57 percent of office-based physicians in the country have adopted EMRs. However, 34 percent of physicians only have a basic system, which means that only 22 percent of physicians have a fully functional EMR system. Therefore, only 22 percent of physicians are qualified for the incentives and are demonstrating €Meaningful Use€ (MU). The reasons for the poor adoption rate of fully functional EMR systems lie in the numerous functional hurdles faced by providers in successfully implementing a fully functional system.
Nowadays, healthcare industry widely applies health information technologies (IT) in clinical care to cut back method inefficiencies, control growth of costs and improve the quality of care (1). Therefore, different computerized systems, softwares, and websites are designed for clinical decision-making aids, production of new knowledge, enhancing public health information, and raising the standard of health care. Although, health IT can promote the capability of diagnosis, treatments and have other potential benefits, additionally increases the healthcare complexity (2).
With secure, essential clinical information, individual practitioners can diagnose and prescribe more quickly and provide top quality care with greater peace of
Technology has been an ever changing factor in the health care field. Some of the pros associated with technology is that it has enabled providers to care for patients with increased efficiency. The driver behind this innovation is the need for quicker turnaround times and instant updates. No longer does it take weeks to get medical records because technology allows for almost immediate delivery via electronic data transmission. Patients can now collaboratively work with their health care provider to monitor health related conditions via web based devices.
The overall push for electronic health record use for hospitals and physicians was to enhance our countries use of electronic health records systems on a national level". Since providers receive incentives for utilizing electronic health record systems, public-health reporting is a great way to ensure that the meaningful use requirement is met. However in the article entitled “Some Hospitals Are Falling Behind In Meeting 'Meaningful Use' Criteria And Could Be Vulnerable To Penalties In 2015” claims there are many incentives to adopting electronic health care records which total $30 million dollars. Conversely, many are struggling on how to understand how these payments are distributed throughout hospitals.