The creation of EHR (Electronic Health Records) makes the medical world of medical practitioners, personnel, and staff easier. It enables the services of medical specialists, physicians, nurses, and other medical personnel speedy and comprehensive. EHR is a longitudinal medical gadget electronic record of patient's health data based on several encounters of patient's health care setting (himss.org., 2010).
EHR is a very useful and comfortable medical electronic tool. By just a click of second, patient's file is comprehensively enumerated in front of you. It quickly displays patient's progress notes, medications, existing conditions and problems, demographic data, vital symptoms and signs of illness and health disturbances, previous medical files and history, immunization information, radiology and other laboratory results data. It can even accelerate all other health care-related activities the patient has undergone. Consequently, it enables the clinicians or any medical personnel's workflow quick. It absolutely streamlines all information needed about the patient's health care status.
Thus, the existence of EHR is a grand help and an asset medical electronic gadget. It fast tracks data collection and clearly reveals the patient's condition you wanted to monitor. It is genuinely effective and promptly captures everything you desire to gather regarding the patient's status. In fact, medical personnel can label it as 'all-in-one' medical automated gadget. It is not only capable of providing the patient's complete data but also it gives hospital or clinic administrator accurate billing data. It leads physician to diagnose effective treatments prescribing efficacy in medications. It accumulates patient's available information to serve several needs.
EHR perfectly simplifies the complex medical environment. It absolutely promotes effective cascading of information from one discipline to another. It lightens the workloads of every medical personnel, not only the nurses, but also other medical staffs like the radiologists, pharmacists, medical technicians, and other auxiliary staff. The direct unfolding of data before anybody's eyes speeds the doing of any task easily.
EHR Systems in Improving Health Care Quality and Patient's Safety
Several EHR systems are developed to serve specific domain of functions. To provide prompt accommodation and immediate attention to patients, administrative system is designed. Such system is also known as the RADT (registration, admission, discharge, and transfer) which contain a very personalized file about the patient. Laboratory system is identified to be the interface section collaborating existing hubs to connect orders, laboratory instruments results, set schedules, billing data, and some administrative information. It makes the netting and the streamlining of patient's data accessible.
On the other hand, radiology system or commonly labeled as radiology information system (RIS) is basically set for radiologists. It is for this system that the radiology section ties and links patient's radiology information such as orders, readings, patient identity data and images. It displays patient's tracking process, schedules of health test, results reporting, and image tracking components. RIS prominently reflects picture archiving. And to integrate medication filing pharmacy system is created.
Subsequently, computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system is carved to allow hospitals or medical centers to electronically process order on laboratory, pharmaceutical, and radiological services. Thus, Electronic clinical documentation systems empower the existence of EHRs by shaping electronic capture on clinical files and notes; patient's status and assessments; and current clinical reports, like the availability of medication administration records (MAR). Transcending CPOE elements, successful and effective marking of clinical documentation system must conform with the scaffolding workflow of each functioning systems.
Each responsible person running and manning the corresponding EHR system is obliged to have dexterity in processing the respective data expected in such system. Ultimate care in making an entry and encoding should be focused.
It is witnessed that EHR soars its way up spreading delightful services whenever all the working elements and components that evolve around it dart their all their tasks to EHR expected quality output.
Available EHR as set by Institute of Medicine in Comparison with Existing Facilities
The available facilities used in accommodating EHR conform to the guidelines and rules set by the federal government. To stamp credibility and reliability in the use of EHR and the active implementation of its 'meaningful use', medical facilities are enriched and are technologically modified to meet EHR availability.
The Federal Office of National Coordination (ONC) for Health Information Technology EHR Standards' Impact
It has been a federal's policy that all hospitals, clinics, and any existing legal health care centers must avail the use of electronic health record (EHR) system. Each government medical center is expected to abide to the designed standards and implementation of EHR requirements under Medicare and Medicaid. The federal stressed that all existing medical modules run with EHR be certified and tested accordingly.
EHR set standards' with their corresponding meaningful use core objectives active implementation definitely increases productivity. Whenever meaningful use of EHR standards be practiced religiously like the conduct of drug-allergy checks, active medication list, active allergy medication data, clinic decision-making feature such as diagnostic test recording, provide up-to-date existing health problem status list both previous, and current or active patient's diagnoses and laboratory tests, and produce and give legitimate prescriptions electronically, its effect is a grand slam.
EHR usefulness and effectiveness banners timeliness, quality medical health care services, and multiplies meaningful desirable outputs in the medical surroundings. It is not only manifesting as an ideal gadget for medical personnel's comfort towards their work but also a very satisfying tool for the patient (with the relatives) to have a vivid prompt access on the presentation and summary regarding his/her health care condition and other stemming signs and treatments.
EHR impact anchors always to how it is used carefully in its own specific field. In fact, Pear (2010) emphasized also along Obama's campaign on the use of EHR that: EHR standards in its new final rules are less pushing and more considerate that doctors are expected to perform 15 detailed requirements, then an additional 5 chosen from the 10 enumerated objectives in which hospitals are set to achieve 14 set requirements, then additional 5 chosen from the list of 10 goals.
Finally, EHR usefulness, effectiveness, efficiency, and accuracy depends on the user. As an electronic gadget, its manning needs careful maneuver especially in encoding and feeding of information for it will immediately outflow queued data in its related nodes of data destination.
Sources:
Department of Health and Human Services (2010). Web. Retrieved 30 Oct 2010 from
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-17210.pdf.
Harmon, Katherine (2010). Moving Forward With Electronic Health Records. Retrieved 30 Oct 2010 from http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=moving-forward-with-electronic-heal-2010-02-05.
Himss.org (2010). EHR. Retrieved 30 Oct 2010 from http://www.himss.org/ASP/topics_ehr.asp.
Pear, Robert (2010). Standards Issued for Electronic Health Records. Retrieved 30 Oct 2010 from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/health/policy/14health.html?_r=2.
SearchHealthIT.com (2010). How EHR Standards Align with Meaningful Use. Retrieved 30 Oct 2010 http://searchhealthit.techtarget.com/tip/How-EHR-standards-align-with-meaningful-use.
The MITRE Corporation (2006). National Institutes of Health National Center for Research Resources. Retrieved 30 Oct 2010 from http://www.ncrr.nih.gov/publications/informatics/ehr.pdf.
Whitney, Lance (2010). New Rules Issued on Electronic Health Records. Retrieved 30 Oct 2010 from http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-20010507-247.html.
