NUR 621 What were the positives, and are there any negative issues with any aspects of EHR?
Present one function of the EHR that has impacted your work and improved patient care. What has been the impact? Present examples.
REPLY
Last year my organization went live with an EPIC Advance Care Planning (ACP) Navigator. If upon admission the patient couldn’t express their wishes and preferences the clinicians could still access their documents or documentation quickly. These items would show on the initial page of the patient chart once opened which allowed for greater and quicker access to this vital information. If the patient had wishes expressed the medical team was able to access their records and act appropriately. Therefore, expansion of the EHR through the implementation of the ACP navigator had a major impact on improving patient care that is consistent with their wishes and preferences for those who engaged in an ACP conversation or had an advance directive (AD) on file (Moses et al., 2020).
Reference
REPLY
One function of the EHR that has impacted our work and our organization is the Best Practice Alert (BPA). There are many ways that BPA can help with patient outcomes and cost. Bejianki et al. (2018) noted that that under ordering, over ordering, and mis ordering of lab test can cost the healthcare system a large amount of money. That is one reason why BPA’s are nice because they can alert the provider if a test has recently been completed or if there are additional test needed for a particular treatment. An example is with Heparin drips. A PT/INR may have already been completed, but maybe a PTT was not. This is one test that is needed prior to beginning this drip. A BPA pop up can remind the provider that one needs to be ordered. The same thing goes if all lab test had recently been completed.
Bejjanki, H., Mramba, L. K., Beal, S. G., Radhakrishnan, N., Bishnoi, R., Shah, C., Agrawal, N., Harris, N., Leverence, R., & Rand, K. (2018). The role of a best practice alert in the electronic medical record in reducing repetitive lab tests. ClinicoEconomics and outcomes research : CEOR, 10, 611–618. https://doi.org/10.2147/CEOR.S167499
REPLY
Electronic health care records have a lot of benefits in healthcare. One of the main benefits of EHR is having security of data. By having most data in computer system that require the use of password to access, it is easy to track anyone who logs in any healthcare
system and accesses patients’ private health data. EHR has made it easy for healthcare providers to share and access patients’ healthcare records in real-time without necessarily having patients carry paper documents physically whenever they go to see their providers. All what healthcare providers need to do is to access the health information online and find about their patients. EHR has helped in reducing medical error among patients. Different healthcare providers can access medical records of their patients online, that way they are able to see what type of medication they are on. By doing this they wouldn’t overprescribe or under prescribe their patients meds. EHR has gone a long way in improving the environment, since a lot of documents are saved electronically which eliminates the use of paper documents thus saving a lot of trees in the process. EHR has also reduced the cost of doing business, since most records can be sent online without necessarily using postage or mail. Some of the downside of EHR is that when the system goes down, patient records are no longer accessible, which may result in delay of care. There is a risk that private healthcare information may end up in the wrong hands, especially if healthcare information system is breached. It may cost a lot of money for any healthcare institution to constantly update the security of software on their system. Some healthcare providers may find it difficult to adopt using EHR which may hinder use of IT in the highest capacity (Patterson,2004).
Reference:
Patterson, K. D. (2004). Healing Health Care: Fixing a Broken System with Information Technology. Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy, 14(1), 193–220.
REPLY
Charles, great information!
Much has been interpreted about HIPPA and what the rules are. One thing that HIPPA does NOT do is impede care coordination. I cannot tell you how many times a patient moves between home, to hospital, to SNF, and back to a home care agency. Information is not shared because of “HIPPA”.
HIPPA was developed to safeguard protected patient information. “Covered entities”, which include physicians, health care organizations and health plans, must adhere to rules that are published to manage and secure patient data. In addition, patients also have rights under this law. Protected patient information includes: past, present and future health conditions, the provision of health care to individuals, and payment for care for this conditions. Any health information that may lead back to a specific patient is protected (US Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.).
