Benefits of EHRs on the Healthcare Organization
The ability to exchange health records electronically help health facilitates to provide high quality and safer care for patients while creating tangible enhancement for an organization. The purpose of this is to merge the patient medical register into a digital document (Sillow et al., 2012). The recorded patient information can be accessed in real-time by authorized users in digital format and ensure clinical dealing with a patient has a current, accurate, and complete file (Chao et al.,2013). They contain medical information, allergies, radiology images, patient lab results, and treatment plans. They give health expertise and care providers’ tools to assist them in making decisions about patient care (King et al., 2014). ERHs benefits are automated tasks and provide better patient care. When used correctly, the ERHs system can serve as valuable tools for quality and long-term quality monitoring.
Ways that quality improvement (QI) data collected from EHRs system can lead to measurable improvement in health care services and the health status of targeted patient groups.
Quality improvement data comprises systematic and continuous actions collected from EHRs systems that led to better health care through advanced patient care like enhanced communication, timeless, patient-centered, equity, and efficiency. It leads to a better quality of care.This helps health organization to provide improved care to their patients by enabling fast access to patient record those results to high efficient care (Barret & Stephen, 2017). The software assists in treatment efficiency while improving efficiency operation practices and led to the achievement of organization goals. The system provides health expert with health analytics that helps in recognizing patterns predict diagnosis and recommend potential treatment options (Menachemi & Collum, 2011). These analytic lead to the productivity of patient results faster or on the first time rather than merely relying on trial and error methods.
Patients can have access to their portals that give them access to their historical medical details such as lab results, diagnoses, and medication. Patients can communicate with their doctors through exchanging instant messages and sharing notes (Barret & Stephen, 2017). improves health care convenience. Both health care providers and patients can use a portal to track a person’s treatment progress. It makes preventive care easier and the coordination of health care services. Reduced paperwork and test duplication lower health care costs and improves efficiencies.
Ethical clinical decision making is easy because integrating patient data from multiple sources helps improve health as it makes it easier for physicians to encourage a healthier lifestyle in the community. For example, on better nutrition, increase physical activities, enhance coordination of health care services prevention of behavioral threats, and reduce wastage of time and duplicated test that results in improved health.
How does Electronic Health Records Protect Patient Privacy
The privacy of patients and the security of their medical information are vital. Many patients feel that their health information is private and must be protected. The national government has placed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule to ensure patient privacy (Sahama & Simpson, 2013). There is also a HIPAA security Rule that requires some protections to safeguard patient health information.
Some measures built into EHR are access control tools like PIN or password for accessing information. Encrypting stored patient information means health information cannot be read except by those using a system that can decrypt it with a key (Fernandez Aleman et al., 2013). The EHRs have to audit trail features that record people who access the information, changes made, and when.
Describe how the use of EHRs can abe used to Improve Organizational Efficiency and Productivity
EHRs enable physicians to provide accurate diagnosis and treatment. They fasten appointments and office visits without sacrificing a patient-centered approach that increases the number of patients attended daily (Chao et al., 2013). The system got some built-in templates that help doctors to document a common patient problem. The models fit a specific physician’s individual needs. The artificial intelligence is making inroads into systems. The ERHs can also automatically check for possible drug-to-drug and drug-to-allergy interactions based on a patient’s present diagnosis and medication (Sillow et al., 2012). These increases organization productivity.
Standardizing documentation
The primary purpose of the documentation is to support patient care. The medical record gets scanned into an electronic system. Completion record time should be meet regulations requirements (Saitwal et al., 2010). The electronic health record is shared, and there many stakeholders and reviewers of the documentation (Fernandez Aleman et al., 2013). The electronic health record (ERC) can be viewed by many instantaneously and utilizes a host of information technology tools (Chao et al., 2013). Patients usually review their electronic medical records, which contains medical documentation about diagnoses from the health care website or physician.
Reducing waste
The ERHs are now common in many health facilities. The software can significantly reduce errors, saves money to improve physician-patient communication, and save practitioners time. The software makes it easier and faster for medical staff to carry on their responsibilities (Sillow et al., 2012). Patient records can get accessed from anywhere in the platform, reducing the time wasted, going from one place to the next transfer file (Saitwal et al., 2010). Saves communications time for staff can use a few minutes to answer messages and respond to patient questions rather than meeting for many hours (Barret & Stephen, 2017). This helps physicians to increase their workload and attend more patients, bringing in additional funds for the organization. With the less time required to sort and update files, workers can have many responsibilities that help consolidate roles and lower costs for the facility.
Human and capital resource
An organization works to achieve the goal of maximizing revenue. ERHs provide payment tools and billing to income and payment management. The system allows physicians to document each patient, making it easy to give evidence on persons claim King et al., 2014). The software gets designed to help physicians to meet guidelines for the future mandate. The government provides monetary incentives to EHRs users. The organization can earn money for implementing a certified solution and meet use standards.
Conclusion
The EHRs have a lot of benefits to medical practices. Physicians can give better health care to patients and increase productivity. It also boosts revenues and provides productive care without wasting time with tedious tasks such as updating files, billing, and documentation. It is essential to understand the tools and functions the practice requires before choosing it.
References
Barrett, A. K., & Stephens, K. K. (2017). Making electronic health records (EHRs) work: Informal talk and workarounds in healthcare organizations. Health Communication, 32(8), 1004-1013.
Chao, W. C., Hu, H., Ung, C. O. L., & Cai, Y. (2013). Benefits and challenges of electronic health record system on stakeholders: a qualitative study of outpatient physicians. Journal of medical systems, 37(4), 9960.
Fernandez Aleman, J. L., Señor, I. C., Lozoya, P. Á. O. & Toval, A. (2013). Security and privacy in electronic health records: A systematic literature review. Journal of biomedical informatics, 46(3), 541-562.
King, J., Patel, V., Jamoom, E. W., & Furukawa, M. F. (2014). Clinical benefits of electronic health record use: national findings. Health services research, 49(1pt2), 392-404.
Menachemi, N., & Collum, T. H. (2011). Benefits and drawbacks of electronic health record systems. Risk management and healthcare policy, 4, 47.
Sahama, T., Simpson, L., & Lane, B. (2013, October). Security and privacy in eHealth: Is it possible?. In 2013 IEEE 15th International Conference on e-Health Networking, Applications and Services (Healthcom 2013) (pp. 249-253). IEEE.
Saitwal, H., Feng, X., Walji, M., Patel, V., & Zhang, J. (2010). Assessing the performance of an electronic health record (EHR) using cognitive task analysis. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 79(7), 501-506.
Silow-Carroll, S., Edwards, J. N., & Rodin, D. (2012). Using electronic health records to improve quality and efficiency: the experiences of leading hospitals. Issue Brief (Commonw Fund), 17(1), 40.