Electronic Medical Record Research Paper

Health information technology can advance the health of individuals and aid with the performance of providers to produce and improve quality and cost savings in patients’ health. In 2009, Congress passed, and former President Obama signed into law the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Buntin, Burke, Hoaglin and Blumenthal, 2011). Authorized by the HITECH Act, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s (ONC) has worked on health IT. The Health IT created legislation and regulations to provide requirements and certification criteria that the EHRs must meet to ensure health care

The scope of the nursing practice is changing with the improvement of technology. Computer and information technology is just as important to nurses as their stethoscopes, so implementing and using Medical Information Technology (MEDITECH) an Electronic Health Records (EHR) is vital in improving patient care. The importance and knowledge of the possibilities and limitations of EHR systems is brought up throughout this paper. Chilton Hospital and Fairmont General Hospital review their possibilities and limitations about using MEDITECH. Some possibilities include Evidence-Based Documentation, Multidisciplinary Collaboration, Patient Safety, Care Quality, Care Specialties, Time Efficiency, and so on. Some limitations of the MEDITECH

In her assessment of the American Reinvestment & Recovery Act (ARRA), Murphy (2009) discusses how its enactment provided unprecedented funding for the advancement of health information technology (HIT) which served to promote health care reform. Electronic health records (EHRs) by extension received a boost via incentivization for appropriate use in hospitals and ambulatory settings (Murphy, 2009). The benefits of EHRs include the ability to improve the delivery and quality of nursing care, the ability to make more timely and efficient nursing care decisions for nursing, the ability to avoid errors that might harm patients and the ability to promote health and wellness for the patients (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2015).

The healthcare industry generates a great amount of data every day, as a form of record keeping, patient care, compliance, and regulatory requirements. Just a decade ago, all this data was stored in the form of hard copy form, now it is rapidly transforming to digital data which is called EMR (Electronic Medical Record). The digitalization of the healthcare has not just reduced cost of care, but also improved quality of care due to the abundance data that organizations receive from the EMR to identify the flaws in their system.

Technology has helped with many aspects of our lives but healthcare is one that touches every single one of us at every corner of the world. There has been many advancements made to the way physicians treat patient and how they interact with one another. Technology has made it possible to share medical records with physicians all over the world. This has been archived by Electronic Medical Records. Google has made it possible to track out brakes and help physician prepare themselves for these kind of issues.

Technology and the evolution of Electronic Health Records is an improvement to the efficiency and the effectiveness of how healthcare providers record, communicate and process patient information. According to Practice Fusion, “since 2005, the focus of Practice Fusion is expanding the ability to aggregate clinical data and share it meaningfully, by helping to make healthcare better for everyone. To improve clinical decision, support to tracking Meaningful Use, and provide insight that deliver better, safer and more efficient

Depending on the type of office and the patients there in, will determine what electronic health system you will need. Some doctors have patients that need a high level of care and lots of tests and other documented information, like cardiology. Other offices might be able to use a simple program because they don 't have many patients or the patients they do have don 't require extensive documentation. You have to consider the amount of time you may, or may not have to train the staff and get all the information transferred. Once the needs of the facility are determined, it is then important to decide on a system that will coincide. A beneficial EHR system will have great customer service, keep up on technological advances and good

Another weakness is different payer requirements for certain procedures and treatment. There are various items that can prevent the clinic from obtaining revenue for its services such as not having a prior authorization, the payer deems the treatment wasn’t necessary or the payer implemented a new requirement for this treatment that was not met. These are constantly changing and it is difficult for healthcare organizations to keep up with these ever-changing policies.

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. The health care providers are able to quickly finish the patient charting. The Electronic Medical Records allows you to have flexibility to schedule more patients

EHR 's are beneficial to all healthcare staff members in any office. An EHR system has many tools to help keep the healthcare providers run smoothly, and reduce errors. Also, there are many other things you can do in an EHR system to help everyone. Things like; looking at lab tests, scheduling appointments, and of course billing claims. However, every healthcare provider working with an EHR system should properly train the staff so everyone knows how to use it correctly. The more everyone knows about the EHR the better the office can run.

Most people don’t think to worry or wonder where all of their information goes when they visit the doctor’s office, or how the doctor knew things about them from several years ago. They don’t ask the question especially when they go to a new doctor who knows the same thing about them that they’ve never talked about. Electronic Health Records, also known as EHR’s, are becoming some of the most important parts of medical offices around the country and are advancing more and more each day. Ever since the 80’s, EHR’s were being designed and formed, but not until 2009, when the HITECH Act came out, did they start becoming of key importance to the health care market. As they keep growing more and more each day, EHR’s are becoming vital to patient health.

Hillestad, R., Bigelow, J., Bower, A., Girosi, F., Meili, R., Scoville, R., & Taylor, R. (2005). Can electronic medical record systems transform health care? Potential health benefits, savings, and costs. Health affairs, 24(5), 1103-1117.

The Interoperability of electronic medical records increases their ability to improve efficiency of practice, as well as patient safety. In years past, health care providers were not always able to retrieve or review patients’ past medical records. Therefore, the risk for error, due to the inability to view the patient’s whole picture, was even greater. Fortunately, technology has come a long way, and the creation of interoperable electronic medical records has granted care providers the ability to review medical records and provide appropriate patient-centered care based on their current, as well as past, medical history.

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

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.