The Pros And Cons Of The HITECH Act

524 Words3 Pages

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 …show more content…

The HITECH Act was developed so encourage the dissemination of health information technology, which was believed to facilitate improved patient and decrease the cost of healthcare for patients. Yet, even though hospitals are receiving incentives and are adhering to requirements placed on them, nursing staff are struggling due to interruption in workflow and loss in productivity due to time spent learning to use an electronic health record. Nurses are also challenged with technical issues that arise, while providing patient care, which limits their access to patient information. Nevertheless, advantages due to exist to utilizing electronic health record, which include less medical errors, and an improvement in the overall health of populations. Additionally, there is a reduced cost of healthcare for patients as less repetition in treatments and labs are done for patients. Nurse educators have a key role in educating nursing staff on requirements of electronic health records and assisting in a smooth transition. A modification to the HITECH Act to address documentation, may assist in better workflow for nurses. Modification could ensure that only pertinent information requires documentation and then healthcare facilities compliant with the HITECH Act could modify their policies to reflect the

Open Document