Electronic_Medical_Records

Can electronic record systems transform healthcare' Satvinder Kaur Southern Illinois University Carbondale HCM 349 Readings in Health Care Management Fall Semester 2010 Assignment # 1 Great Lakes Can electronic record systems transform healthcare' Amatayakul, M. (2010). Carrots and sticks for EHR implementation. Healthcare Financial Management , 64 (2), 60-63. Healthcare providers are facing difficult situations, whether to implement the proposed technology in time and receive incentives or receive sanctions. The organizations have to make critical decisions by 2015. The organizations have to consider the cost, and the training it involves to implement the Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology. During the incentive period, information technologies also needs to be upgraded and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) financial and administrative versions and implement the International Classification of Diseases-10 by October 2013. Amatayakul suggests that many hospitals and physicians are not financially ready for new technical changes and they do not have enough staff to manage this new system. Some organizations will benefit and others may not benefit. The stimulus package has increased the awareness and the need for an EHR. Amatayakul, M., Lazarus, S. (2005). Electronic health records: Transforming your medical practice. Englewood, CO: Medical Group Management Association. This book will help my paper in the definition, planning, vendor selection, acquisition, implementation, adoption, and benefits of EHR. It focuses on the individual who help the medical practices make better decisions concerning information technology investment. This book also provides step-by-step guidance on understanding the readiness for EHR and how to plan the transition to achieve most benefits. Amatayakul and Lazarus describe the scope and impact on EHR on daily activities. It provides clinical practice for information support personnel and how that is impacted by the EHR. Amatayakul and Lazarus explain that the emphasis is on clinical transformation that an EHR achieves. An EHR is not only a software application that helps in managing a practice, but it is a system that consists of hardware, software, people, policy, and processes that help improvise effectiveness and efficiency in healthcare. Bernstein, K. (2007). EHRs boost compliance. Health Management Technology , 28 (5), 22-24. Electronic Health Records (EHRs) has boosted patient compliance and changes in lifestyle. It is user-friendly, easily accessible, and time saver. EHR system has several benefits that enhance disease management capabilities. Some of the benefits are disease management, physician friendly reminders, easy E-prescription refills, and warn about patient non-compliance. According to Bernstein, the EHR is a very intuitive and user-friendly system for physicians. The EHR saves patient’s demographic information, laboratory results consents, prescribed drug information, radiology reports, and physicians or nurses progress reports. These records can be accessed by any computer even in remote areas to view patient information. Bindell, P.B. (2010). Electronic Health Records: Why you need it now. The American Chiropractor, 32 (7), 48-49. This journal issue discusses the need for electronic health records. There is more awareness of the importance of electronic health or medical records now more than ever. There is a stimulus package of up to $44,000 paid to Medicare program. According to Bindell the benefits of EHR are that, “audit and collection protection, increased income, reduced expenses, higher patient visit average (PVA), more patients, and compliance with Federal and State laws and regulations”. A company with a complete EHR system spends less time on data entry and more time on activities that help bring more patients and increase income. When a patient signs in at the front desk, patient’s name is automatically entered into the computer; the nurse enters the documentation of the services performed. At the time of checkout, the computer has already generated the charges for the day based on the progress notes. This system eliminates fee slips and makes the billing more accurate. This is very important if a company gets audited. If there is any discrepancy, it would cost a fortune to settle the case and it is possible to lose the license. Brokel, J. M. (2009). Infusing clinical decision support interventions into electronic health records. Urological Nursing, 29 (5), 345-352. There are several types of clinical decision support (CDS) systems available in electronic health records (EHRs) and electronic medical records (EMRs) that provide nurses or care givers the access to patients’ history, assessments, and diagnostic results. Some of the CDS interventions are electronic forms, provider order sets, prescriptive plan of are, drug databases, bar coding, evidence button, logic module, and other CDS interventions. This article is useful for my persuasive paper because it shows that electronic medical records provide clinical decision making support for the physicians and nurses. These interventions help the users in next steps, offer useful information to make a relevant decision to their diagnosis. El-Kareh, R., Gandhi, T., Poon, E., Newmark, L., Jonathan, U., Lipitz, S., & Sequist, T. (2009). Trends in primary care clinician perceptions of a new electronic health record. Journal of general internal medicine, 24 (4), 454-468. A survey of clinicians’ perceptions on the electronic health record was performed from December 2006 to January 2008. Several trends have been noticed during these surveys that signal increased positive perception of a new electronic health record system. Implementing the new electronic health record delivery system in the ambulatory environment is a national priority. There is a great need to redesign workflow, provide training and education to support new technology. This study will help my paper in understanding if the clinicians are ready to accept changes in this new adventure. Majority of the clinicians saw an improved overall quality, patient safety, communication, and access to clinical information. The implementation process had a few challenges. Many clinicians felt that the EHR had negative effect on patient interaction initially, but later as they got accustomed to the new system, they loved the results. It had workflow efficiency, user-friendly management of problem lists, medication lists, and test results. French, D. H. (2005). The laboratory’s role in the universal electronic health record. Medical laboratory observer, 38 (4), 10-15. One of the most important roles on the migration of electronic medical records is the clinical laboratory. The lab data in EMR reduces errors and delays in notification of the results. Healthcare industry’s major sources of errors occur in the lab tests and wrong notification of the results. Hospitals are implementing electronic document-management system (DMS) or EHR hybrid, thus reducing the manual charting of lab results and have automated delivery mechanism. According to French nearly 80% of information that physicians need to make medical decision is the medical lab procedures. To remain in healthy growth rates in the laboratory, the hospitals at least need to match the connectivity that is offered by the commercial labs. Glaser,J. (2009). Implementing electronic health records: 10 factors for success. Health Financial Management, 63 (1), 50-54. Glaser focuses on how to strategically maximize the importance of EHR implementation. He has emphasized on improvement of quality, safety, and efficiency of care. Glaser puts forth ten factors which are very essential to implement and use the EHR successfully. Glaser discusses the ten factors, those are “(1)The organization’s strategies, objectives, and plans are clear, and well received. (2) Ways to link of the Information Technology (IT) agenda to the organization’s strategies are discussed by management. (3) The organization holds itself accountable for its performance. (4) Efficient and effective IT governance is in place. (5) The organization has determined which processes require IT- enabled improvement- and measures performance. (6) Multiple supporting initiatives have been incorporated. (7) The organization understands the complicated nature of the value proposition of an EHR. (8) Clinicians are continuously engaged in improving the systems and related work flows. (9) Investment in infrastructure is supported. (10) The organization invests in modest, thoughtful IT experimentation.” The strategies, objectives, and plans of healthcare providers are becoming a central contribution. These ten lessons help EHR investment to transform into better organization. Lazenby, G., Hatch, T., & Lauer, E. (2007). Provider tips for moving to electronic payment receipt and reconciliation. Health Financial Management, 61 (6), 1-4. Some of the challenges of paper based payment processes are inefficiency, opportunity for errors, retrieval, and costs. There are a few issues in electronic remittance advices (ERA) and electronic funds transfer (EFT) as well. But the benefits outweigh the challenges. This article discusses the potential to save money as much as $35 billion a year. This is achieved by eliminating paper from the recycle. Electronic payment is much faster and easier than paper based processes. Lehmann, H., Abbott, P., Roderer, N., Rothschild, A., Mandell, S., Ferrer, J. (2006). Aspects of electronic health record systems. Miller, R., Ball, M., Hannah, K. (Eds). New York, NY: Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. This book gives us information about the history of health information technology. Our society became more mobile and technologically aware when the American model changed from inpatient care to an outpatient care phenomena. Computer-based patient record (CPR) is a longitudinal collection of personal health information. In 1966, University of Wisconsin was the first to use computer for recording medical history. By 1971, one million patient records were maintained in the computer database. I chose this book because it provides us information about the needs for computer based patient record system, the current state were are in, the technological infrastructure, and what the future might be. Significant progress has been made towards the overall goal of the universal electronic health record system. Walker, J., Ahern, D., Le, L., Delbanco, T. (2009). Insights for internists: “I want the computer to know who I am”. Journal of general internal medicine, 24 (6), 727-732. Patients can access parts of electronic medical records online. They include personal histories, and chronic illness management. Patients want full access to their provider based records. This article relates to the diversity in designing health technologies. This study was done on eighty two adult frequent internet users who represented a diverse population and a broad demographic range. The results individuals were looking for were to transform their interaction with the healthcare system. The participants want the computers to know them, their home monitors to communicate with the physicians and providers, and privacy to be maintained. The participants had great ideas about how to improve personal health management. Different individuals throughout the designing process will strengthen and shape their evolution.