HIT 543 Electronic Health Records Management

Select an environment (one you currently work in, have worked in previously, or wish to move into) and describe the challenges and opportunities associated with the implementation of an EMR, EHR/Patient Portal, or Decision Support/Dashboard.

Select an environment where you currently work in, have worked in previously, or wish to move into:

Discuss the potential/real challenges and opportunities associated with the implementation of an EMR, EHR/Patient Portal, or Decision Support/Dashboard.

Discuss possible opportunities or improvement that relates to the challenges you described

Discuss Why the solutions EMR/Patient portal or Decision support was selected verses other solution available in the market or the industry.

Medical evolution in data recording

Medical practice in the United States has undergone a great manifestation throughout in a decade period of time. Its documentation has transitioned from mostly the usage of paper records to the use of electronic records. This transition was facilitated by a strong governmental push that began way back in the year 2004 with the establishment of an office of the Coordinator of Health Information Technology. Over a period of time, medical practices have advanced in its services. Introduction of technology in the medication system has had a major impact in provision of treatment services to patients.

In medical system through the effects technology has had towards it, it has come to a point where technology holds the greatest base in hospital services and other medical institutions. The merits of using technology such us identification of a problem or disease that the paramedics cannot be able to identify, has made it acquire a great consideration when it comes to human lives (Charlotte, 2015). It is as result of the impacts of using the most advanced technological equipment and devices that led to the introduction of Electronic Medical and Health Records.

EHR and EMR

Benefits of using EMR or EHR as the best solution.

With different other methods and solutions of recording medical data, Electronic is considered as the most reliable means. Comparison between the types of solutions, most of the benefits overweigh the Electronic. One of the major impacts of the implementation of technology in medical practices include the usage of Electronic means in data recording. The adoption of this methods has enhanced the fading of the paper method of recording patients’ medical data (Tim, 2007). However, through usage of EHR method, there has been some substantial benefits experienced by patients. These benefits include; Provision of accurate, complete and up to date information about medical state of patients, It also enables patients to have multiple care providers regardless of where they go as the providers have access to all medical history of a patient. The usage, unlike paper recording, it is more secure again sharing one’s health records with other clinicians. With regard to this, experts have noted, the usage of emergency health records increases the health related safety of patients.

With the usage of EHR, one is able monitor his or her work life balance and through this productivity is improved. A lot of paper work is reduced sparing more time for the medical representative to be able to attend to other patients (Jeffrey, 2011). In addition, one can now be able to improve efficiently in his or her health thus facilitating to meet their business goals. Technology does not favor all though. The adoption of the EMR in human health has its challenges to the patients relying on it as a medical lucrative venture. Increased efficiency and even productivity levels is visible in this case.

Generally, one must at least have an idea on what is happening in their health and live up to its expectations (Xiaolong, 2016). This however is not possible to all patients, not all patients are of much literate for them to understand their health condition. Of these challenges experienced in relation to the electronic way of health recording include;

Its cost.

Getting the services offered in EMR its cost is much higher to the paper methods. Having in mind different customers’ income budget, some people may not be able to afford the services as it is quite expensive. Moreover, medical Organizations not only do they consider the hardware and the software but also the income required to the implementation, support, training and the possible loss to be acquired in productivity during the startup phase (Kathleen, 2016). Not forgetting, the new EHR system is a bit expensive disadvantaging the small medical organizations

Liability and Safety.

Quality of human health care can easily be threatened. Medical records through the use of electronics methods of recording are believed to be accurate and reliable (Mantas, 2014). The case may be different though. An error might be experienced during the information analysis. In case of poor documentation making it unreliable or making it impossible to be accessed when needed.

Additionally, through the use of computer skills one can be able to hack through the technology making them possible to get into contact with one’s personal medical data. Considering the challenges as way of realization of making some adjustment in the medical facilities, medical organizations have tried to bring up strategies and ideas to improve on the challenges faced in the recording of medical data electronically.

With the current technology, which requires one enter data frequently, this might be tiresome at a certain point. New ideas to design EHR systems in order to maximize one’s full productivity (Mark, 2015). A lack in context and structure being overly structured requirements needed in the capturing of patient’s medical data. EHR system with the help of medical organizations in the state need to offer support in decision-making with concise, sensitivity and accuracy in real-time data. Despite the fact that technology is greatly involved in medical services, most of the system used in EMR are not designed to support the engagement of the patients digitally (Cynthia, 2011). But the incorporation of interoperability between the patients and the EHR system would be an important factor in facilitating wellness and better management of some diseases.

In summary, medical practice has undertaken a huge step in its improvement of the services offered by medical facilities. We can agree that even though technology has a major impact human health we should not forget that old methods to can be relied to. The results from the old methods are not as fast as the modern ones, the information from it can be relied upon.  

References

Charlotte, A.W., (2015). Healthcare Information Management Systems: Cases, Strategies and solutions. Springer, Atlanta.

Cynthia, A.B., (2011). Health Care Delivery. DIANE Publishing.

Jeffrey, D., (2011). The Complete Guide and Toolkit to Successful EHR adoption. HIMSS.

Kathleen, M., (2016). Informatics for Health Professionals. Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

Mantas, J., (2014). Integrating Information Technology and Management for quality care. IOS Press. 

Mark, B., (2015). Practitioners Guide to Health Informatics. Springer.

Tim, S., (2007). Implementing an Electronic Medical System. Radcliffe Publishing.

Xiaolong, Z., (2016). Smart health. Springer. United States of America.