Electronic Health Record (EHR) - Research Paper Example

ID # Electronic Health Record Introduction At the present, information technology (IT) is playing a significant role in every walk of life. The electronic health record is a brilliant example of the latest IT applications. Basically, an electronic health record (EHR) is an approved or authenticated health record for a person that can be shared among several facilities and organizations. The basic purpose of using an EHR is to improve the performance and quality of health care which will eventually minimize costs associated with manual health care records management. At the present, governments in many countries around the world are trying to make sure that all their people have standardized electronic health records as well as all those records must include the similar details. However, its high implementation cost could be a major challenge in the acceptance of electronic health records (TechTarget). Moreover, an electronic health record is produced as well as maintained inside an organization, like that a hospital, medical clinic, integrated delivery network or physician office. Additionally, an electronic health record is a longitudinal record of the complete care offered to the patient at any place at any time. However, the longitudinal records can be kept in a national or regional health care information system. Hence, electronic health records which are custom-designed can be stored in any other health care organization (National Institutes of Health; TechTarget). This paper discusses some of the important aspects of an electronic health record technology. In this scenario, this research will present an overview of electronic health record technology, its applications and uses, process of transformation of manual information to digital details and finally how we can attain meaningful information to such records. An Overview of EHR Technology The majority of commercial electronic health records join together data from the large subsidiary services or departments, such as laboratory, pharmacy and radiology, through a wide variety of health care actions (i.e. medication administration records [MAR], nursing plans and medical physician orders). In other words, the use of an EHR system is the next step in the continuous development of healthcare sector that can reinforce the link between healthcare service providers and patients, because the data, and the appropriate and timely accessibility of it, allow health service providers to provide better care and make better decisions (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service; National Institutes of Health; TechTarget).   At the present, integrated aspects and characteristics concerned in any medical research center completely depend on the technology based systems implemented and data structures used by the technical teams. In this scenario, medical research centers can use the services of a number of subsidiary system dealers that are not essentially incorporated into the electronic health records. The electronic health records, consequently, can bring in data from the subsidiary systems with a custom interface or can offer interfaces that facilitate health service providers to access the storage systems throughout a portal. Given below are some of the major electronic health record systems that can develop a complete EHR arrangement: (National Institutes of Health; TechTarget) Administrative System Components Laboratory System Components Radiology System Components Pharmacy System Components Computerized Physician Order Entry Clinical Documentation General Application of EHRs In the past few years, Electronic Health Record systems are playing a significant role in our lives and offer a wide variety of tools for effectively managing healthcare services and operations. In fact, EHR systems are used to keep our personal information regarding healthcare aspects. In case of any medical and healthcare issue this information can be accessed quickly and accurately and an appropriate solution can be suggested. In this scenario, the personal information that is stored in EHRs can be: (National Institutes of Health; TechTarget) Family history Contact information Allergies Insurance information Information regarding visits to health care specialists Immunization position Information regarding some conditions or diseases A list of medications Records of hospitalization Information regarding some surgeries or procedures performed Applications for Healthcare Professionals This section discusses the applications of Electronic Health Record systems for healthcare professionals. The key aspect of integrated clinical systems is that they help health service providers gather and store health care related data as a part of the general workflow. In this scenario, an electronic health record system facilitates the health care service providers to get data for billing, the doctor to perceive developments in the efficiency of treatments, a medical researcher to examine the effectiveness of medicine in patients with co-morbidities and a nurse to report an unfavorable reaction. Additionally, an EHR system puts together data to deal with different requirements. The basic goal is to gather data once, then utilize it numerous times (National Institutes of Health; TechTarget). In addition, EHRs are applied in very complex and large clinical situations. Characteristics and interfaces that are extremely suitable for one medical area of knowledge, similar to those aspects, one can be irritatingly not feasible for other (similar to concentrated care unit). Moreover, the collected data, the processing, the level of feature and the way of management can be amazingly different, depending on the examination venue and the function of the user (National Institutes of Health; TechTarget). Conversion Process Currently, the majority of medical records management systems are based on the traditional paper-based medical record that has been utilized for hundreds of years. For the reason that every Healthcare service provider maintains a different paper medical record for every patient, as a result, there is no facility to put together information between different providers treating a patient (MedaPPZ). In this scenario, changing traditional paper-based medical record to an electronic medical record system offers major clinical and operational advantages. For attaining successful outputs, however, are able to emerge to some extent intimidating, particularly when we have to consider many shelves of charts inside our medical records filing room. Such kind of health care chart conversion requires not being drawn by means of foreboding. Consider it an ideal situation to arrange patient information, free up storage space, gets rid of most, if not all, healthcare and everlastingly stop the searches for missing charts (Outlook Associates). Given below are different methods for concerting information from paper records to electronic records and ensuring “Meaningful Use” of such healthcare information for enhanced services of healthcare arrangements. Manual Entry The manual entry is the simplest way of data conversion to digital form enclosed inside paper medical records. It engages abstracting healthcare data from charts and openly entering it physically into technology based system’s screens. However, this method of data conversion is more time-consuming and expensive, the benefit in scenario of fast access to data and complete control over EMR capabilities from the first day of live Electronic Health Record use are significant. Hence, entering exact present and historical patient care data and information into the electronic health record systems allows a health care service provider to get instant benefit of reminding, interaction, and data update characteristics offered in the modern system (Outlook Associates). Scanning The second most useful method of data conversion to digital form is scanning. It is a comparatively straightforward technique for gathering electronic images of paper documents and storing them according to a situation with online screens. In addition, scanning allows the well-organized collection of paper chart data and information for using inside the new electronic health record system. Moreover, scanning stores the data like images rather than discrete data items, that limits its use to the health care service providers (Outlook Associates). Electronic Conversion The third method of data conversion to digital form is the electronic conversion that offers a straightforward automated procedure for gathering data elements from a different system also electronically converting and loading it into the electronic health record system. This method of electronic conversion speeds-up the loading of a huge volume of corporate historical data powerfully and precisely (Outlook Associates). Hybrid Approach The next important method for data conversion to digital form is the use of a hybrid or blended method for transforming paper medical records to digital electronic health records systems. In this scenario, significant data necessary to support remote clinical results for electronic health records care communication or reminder warnings is abstracted and entered straightly into the electronic health record system (Outlook Associates). Advantages of EHRs We can save space by reducing paper work desired for hospitals, medical offices or insurance businesses. One more benefit of electronic health records is that they enable health care groups to organize health care services. In addition, the use of electronic health record systems can save a lot of time. Although faxing and email helps one doctor to obtain data and information from another laboratory or doctor, but for this they had to wait for a long time. But with EHRs, healthcare professionals can have immediate access to a patient’s details and data, such as lab tests, x-rays and details of recommendations or allergies, in this way they will be authorized to act right away, as a result saving a lot of precious time (Ellis-Christensen; Outlook Associates). Given below are some of major advantages of EHRs: (Ausmed Education Pty Ltd. ) Improve communication among healthcare professionals Reduce repetition of information Information is accessible to healthcare professionals remotely All healthcare professionals can access same latest information Improve loyalty and reliability of healthcare Information less likely to be lost or destroyed (as it can happen in case of paperwork) Can more correctly store financial data Disadvantages of EHRs Given below are some of the disadvantages of EHRs: (Ausmed Education Pty Ltd.) Its implementation is costly Systems can cause uncertainty (adequate training would be required) Systems would be more time consuming (at least at the start) Healthcare professionals may be unenthusiastic/unable to adapt to new technology (as mentioned above some training would be required) This system will require extensive maintenance System failures can occur (for instance power failure may render the system ineffective for periods of time) Conclusion At the present, information technology (IT) is playing a significant role in every walk of life. The electronic health record is a brilliant example of the latest IT applications. An electronic health record (EHR) is an approved or authenticated health record for a person that can be shared among several facilities and organizations. This paper has presented a detailed overview of electronic health record technology. This research has covered the basic application or EHRs, its uses in medical and healthcare sector, process of transformation of manual information to digital details and finally assessment of how we can attain meaningful information to such records. This paper has also discusses several advantages and disadvantages of this modern technology. Works Cited “Electronic health record (EHR)”. TechTarget. 28 February 2011. Web. 04 March 2012 . “Electronic Health Records Overview”. National Institutes of Health. April 2006. Web. 08 March 2012 . Ellis-Christensen, Tricia. “What are the Advantages of Electronic Medical Records?” 25 February 2012. Web. 03 March 2012 . “Medical Chart Conversion”. Outlook Associates. 2010. Web. 03 March 2012 . “Overview: Electronic Health Records”. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. 2012. Web. 07 March 2012 Read More